Reaching Out(ON INDEFINITE HIATUS)
by Demolitioneer
Summary: Horatius Payne is a man with a complicated past. He craves adventure and adversity, and is granted a lifetime supply of both when he meets the Ghost crew, and becomes a rebel. Set during Season 1 of Rebels, this is the story of how Horatius and the Spectres reach out from their small rebellion on Lothal, to the Rebellion that blazes across the stars. Romance/fluff included. HIATUS
1. Prologue

**Spectre 7:Reaching Out**

 **-Demolitioneer**

 **DISCLAIMER-**

 **I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters or stories. My stories are fanfiction that use Ocs and certain plotlines and stories from the Star Wars Universe.. The rights to Star Wars rest with Lucasfilm and Disney, as far as I know.**

 **I hope you enjoy my work.**

 **PROLOGUE**

 **One month before Order 66 and the Clone Wars' end...**

This one was the final one. It had to be. The final battle. That's what every trooper charging into battle that day thought. They'd been fighting the Separatist forces for nigh on eight months, losing some and then winning back what had been lost and more, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, untill it was all just a blur. You'd wake upto some on the other toaster trying t bombard the living daylights of you; shake the drowsiness of, pick up an anti-ship rocket launcher , walk over a brother who had been crushed, electrocuted, or burned by the bombing and its aftermath; find, a firing position up high, take aim, and let it rip. Then you' simply go back to the dented barracks and sleep till your shift was the next one.

That was what a clone trooper went through every day on Cato Neimodia. However, this was not what an ARC Trooper had to put up with, thought CT-0002, as he made his way to his post-mission debriefing at Field Command Centre#42. Oh, no, not us ARCs, he thought, We get to head into the most violent confrontations where the odds are just about always stacked against us. Then again, that is the way he liked it. 0002 had the opinion that a battle wasn't really worth fighting if two criteria weren't met: one, it has to be challenging; and two, the cause has to be one worth fighting for.

As he rushed into the Command centre, an

AT-TE burst into flames, demolished by a separatist bomber's payload. He felt a twinge of sadness, knowing that at least eight men had been killed off. Watching his brothers and the people of Cato Neimodia die and suffer had become a part of everyday life. What scared and disturbed 0002 the most was how everyone of the Wolfpack-The battallion under General Plo Koon dispatched for the Cato Neimodia campaign-was used to it: the loss of lives, the wrecking of a perfectly good planet, and the destruction of the future of all the younglings who called this place home. If we didn't feel any remorse or pain for all the carnage, then aren't we basically battle droids?

As 0002 walked into the makeshift briefing room, racked and scarred from all the bombing, he was greeted by the stoic voice of Jedi Master Plo Koon:

"Koh-to-yah, ARC Commander. How does the day treat you?"

0002 removed his helmet-the General believed in making eye contact as one spoke-and grinned.

"Pretty well, compared to most days, General. I actually slept for four whole hours before an unfortunate platoon of clanker commandos happened upon my barracks and tried to kill my squad."

"Poor droids. Did they perchance get a single shot out of their rifles."

"They'll get to try and pull the trigger in my presence when hell freezes over."

"I suppose never is not just an empty word for you, it it?"

"Never was, never will be, General."

"As much as I would love to let you spend the day preying upon some poor defenceless droidekas",began Plo Koon, his words tinged with both amusement and pity for the droids,"I need you to on a special strike team. Your mission: to board and destroy the Confideracy flagship _Devil's Gambit_ ". The primary objective: to assassinate the captain, a TX/AARC series Super Tactical Droid, Operating ID#0002 callsign:the Mindflayer. Proceed with caution, for this droid is part of a line of droids were meant to be Anti-ARC specialists. And this one, was apparently meant specifically to counter you."

"Aw, they built a different kind of droid just to end me? That settles it. I'm going to head over there to thank them by cleaning _Devil's Gambit_ of all droids; and then, we can have some fireworks, provided by the _Gambit_ 's collapsing reactor! When do I-"

0002 paused, as he had just seen a glint of light reflecting from a derelict building overhead move, the glint being the kind you get when a metal surface is painted with camouflaging, heat-retarding paint. The kind you see on a sniper rifle. Seeing where the glint was pointing, 0002 dived in front of General Koon, and suddenly felt a searing pain in the back of his head. As he slipped into unconciousness, he could hear men shouting and blasters firing, and saw the usually impassive Jedi looking over him with worry on his face, calling for an immediate medical extraction. As he heard the screams and sparks of clones and droids falling in battle, respectively, all ARC 0002 could think was:

"Karabast! I really wanted to set off those fireworks! The squad would have loved 'em. It would've been the pinacle of my carrier as a living torpedo...wait, is it Karabast, or Karbast?"

 **Three months later...**

0002 woke to the sound of urgent beeping. Astromech beeping. Accompanied by short robotic wails. 0002 was wide awake now. When an Astromech wails, there is bound to be some serious trouble headed one's way.

"All right, all right. I'm up. What'sthe matter?"

As the Serenade of Wails came to a halt, he realised that there wasn't one droid, but four:three Astromechs, and one Pit droid, by the look of it. The pit droid leapt and quickly put a handover 0002's mouth, as if to calm him. He quickly rattled out his story-

The droid were part of a Covert Ops Detachment known as D-Squad. After their escapade with an Admiral named Gascon, involving stealing an encryption module from a Dreadnought, they had landed up here, on a Republic base on a remote asteroid near Kessel. This was where they had been brought for repairs, but had been abandoned when a sudden solar flare had hit. As a result, all the staff had evacuated. In the hurry, he had been left behind as the machinery he was linked to could not be moved. The droids had put him in the base's deepest storage room to keep the heat from killing him. Once, the Bacta tank had fixed him up his wounds and post-operation scars, it had notified the droids, who had come just now.

When asked about the War, the pit droid, WAC-47, called Cyclops, nervously told him of all that had culminated while 0002 had slept:

The Republic had been swept away, to be replaced by the Galactic Empire. The war was over, but darkness still reigned in the galaxy unopposed. The Jedi order has met its end with Order 66:the killing of all Jedi. There seemed to be no light to repel the darkness. The remnants of the Grand Army of the Republic had been decommissioned. The clones were replaced by the Stormtrooper Core. The Imperial Senate was just a facade to make people think they were still free.

0002 realized that for the first time in his life, he was all alone. General Koon had been killed during Order 66. The Wolfpack had faded away just like the rest of his brothers in arms. He had been left to die in a remote outpost on a desolate asteroid. Life seemed pretty bleak. NO!, he thought, I am an ARC trooper, I turn every situation to my advantage. I adapt to survive. He would make a new life for himself, one free from the Empire that had discarded the Republic he had sacrificed for. He decided he would take these droids along with him into his new life.

Once he had regained his strength, 0002 toured and surveyed the base. It was a new base, and most of the supplies had been left behind during the evac. He found a brand-new prototype frigate; type:Ram-class, designation:the _Breakthrough._ In another hanger, he found another prototype, called the UT-60D starfighter. He dubbed it the U-wing, because of its turning wings' default configuration looking like the basic letter 'U'.He also found three V19 Torrents, two AT-TEs, three AT-APs, and one Y-wing. Some speeder bikes were kept in a separate hangar. With D Squad's help, he loaded the starships and ground transports onto the frigate. He also loaded all the Phase I and II clone armour he found, as well as all the weaponry, ammo and explosives he could find. Lastly, he loaded all the rations, spare parts, tools, fuel and credits he could find. He was set for a long time, in terms of supplies. He was ready to roll.

After making all necessary preparations, the ARC Commander and D Squad boarded the _Bre_ akthrough, and set off for the stars, in search of new purpose and advanture.

This is my first story in the Star Wars Universe.

I'll be posting every now and then. I'm quite busy, so my posting might be erratic. You can assume that I'll be posting every 10 days or so, maybe?

This is the epilogue int he first season, which will have about thirteen chapters..after season one, we'll see if more seasons are to come.

As for fluff and ships, you'll have to wait a while, as the story is just warming up...and I'm not the best of romance writers, and hopefully not the worst.

Do leave some comments, and feedback is always welcome.

MTFBWYA.

Demolitioneer


	2. Chapter 1:Another Day, Another Bounty

**Hello there,**

 **I'm posting another chapter earlier than anticipated as I have a little extra time.**

 **This is the chapter where the Ghost crew are introduced.**

 **Hope you like it.**

 **CHAPTER 2:** **ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BOUNTY**

 **Lothal, 14 years later.**

It was a beautiful day, but Horatius Payne couldn't care less. He had been tracking Hondo Ohnaka for the past two weeks. Hondo owed some people a lot of money that they wanted back immediately, only they couldn't find him. So they called Horatius, who was known in the Outter Rim for his tracking skills. Horatius had missed or lost only a small handful of targets. He was known as the 'Shadow'. You never saw him coming. When you were a criminal and someone knocked on your door in the dead on night, you knew it was him. It did not matter where you hid, or with whom, the Shadow would find you and capture you.

If your name was on any of the holonet bounty lists, you could count on being found by the Shadow.

Hondo was proving to be particularly elusive at the moment. However, Horatius knew that eventually

Hondo was going to end up in the market square, where he was going for a handoff with someone called Azmorigan, another nasty piece of work, always flanked by a squad of droids armed to the teeth. Noticing that the handoff was going to take place shortly, Horatius decided to get a move on, if he was to intercept the pirate.

As he arrived at the market square, he saw a few imperial troopers on speeder transporting some crates. He debated whether he should mess around with the troopers. Horatius never did like the Empire, their cruel ways and indifference to the people under their rule ticked him off. He believed that the powerful should help the weak, helpless and needy. The Empire took what they wanted, killed, imprisoned or destroyed any obstacle, all the while pretending that the Galaxy had made leaps and bounds in their rule. It disgusted Horatius, and so he had a rule: if you saw any imperials, you've absolutely go to make their lives a living hell. It had excellent entertainment value, and on several occasions, he had put clips of the imperials trysts with him on the holonet, to generally positive reception.

Horatius decided to not trouble the troopers this time, so as to not affect his capture of Hondo Ohnaka, who had a two million credit bounty out here for his live capture. He didn't really need the money;what he really craved was adventure and the thrill of facing adversity, and the euphoria of another victory. With his binoscope He zoomed in to the meeting spot, only to find a teenage boy with black hair and startling blue eyes lurking about. Horatius paused. There was something different about this kid, he could feel it. Intrigued by the boy's devilish smile, he followed him on his scope. He realized that the boy too was interested in harassing the daylights out of some imperials, and scoring the crates. He saw three others sidle upto the wall adjacent to the troopers and crates. One mandalorian, judging by the armour, one smuggler, and by the Force,could it be? a Lasat! He must be one of he last Lasats left alive after the massacre of the Lasat homeworld of Lasan.

They too were interested in the crates, it seemed. Suddenly he realized what was gong to happen: the three near the wall were going to subdue the troopers, and grab the traits, though not all of them. The boy lurking nearby was going to steal one of the speeders to which two crates were attached, and make off with the loot. The other three would't see it coming! Horatius couldn't help but laugh; out of pity for the troopers, and at what the trio were going to have to deal with.

He admired the saphire-eyed teen's guts and thinking- looking for gain everywhere, ready to leap at any open opportunity, fearing little. Brilliant! Reminded him of a certain Jedi he had once known.

Horatius turned his sights back on the handoff, only to see two droids there: an imperial probe droid painted purple and white, probably reprogrammed, and one of Azmorigan's signature merc droids. Karabast! The two crooks had decided to send droids for the exchange to avoid capture or interference. Horatius thought quickly, if he followed the probe droid, Hondo would see him coming and escape. While thinking, he looked over the probe droid, he noticed that the droid's main communications and command array was knocked up pretty bad, and the long range antenna was missing. Horatius grinned as a solution dawned to him. He quickly assembled his sniper rifle, and loaded a Hacker pellet into the rifle. Taking aim, he fired at the droid. The droid jerked a little at the impact, but didn't notice, dismissing it as

someone bumping into him in the hustle and bustle. With the pellet attached, Horatius booted up his wrist computer. Hacking the droid would alert Hondo, so instead he simply used the pellet to acquire the unique frequency being used to remotely operate the droid. With the long range antenna out of commission, the short range array was the only way to send and receive signals from the droid; the droid's controller must be close by. Tracking the signal, he pinpointed Hondo's location to the spaceport around the corner. He heard sublight engines firing up for take off. The droid must've reached Hondo's ship. Acting quickly, Horatius loaded a tracker pellet into hiss rifle. He saw Hondo's sleek grey ship, the _Unwanted Visitor_ rising into the sky. Taking aim, Horatius fired the pellet, which implanted itself near the engines, so as to cloak itself in the interference generated by the sublight emission of the engine. This would prevent it being found by scanning the ship. Now, Horatius could find Hondo again. Looking towards where the speeders had been, all he saw were four unconscious troopers. His hunch had been right, he realized with a grin.

As Horatius went to the nearby cantina for lunch, he reflected upon the day's happenings. It hadn't been a waste. With the tracker planted on the ship, he could locate Hondo anytime, so he could try again and again if Hondo proved to be more elusive than he thought. He was fascinated by the boy at the market place, who had made off with two crates, much to the other three's disbelief and surprise. He would like to meet the boy again, as well as the three. There weren't a whole lot of people who'd stand upto the Empire like that. That took courage. They had Horatius' respect. After lunch, Horatius made his way back to his V19 starfighter, and prepped for takeoff. A voice cackled over the, "Renegade Leader, this is Renegade 2, how did the capture go?"

"The target was clever. He sent a droid for the exchange rather than appearing in person. On the bright side, I attached a tracker to his ship, now sending the tracker's data. Could you calculate the destination of the ship from the data?",replied Horatius.

A pause.

"Affirmative, Renegade Leader. Data received. Calculating...Calculation complete. The data points to Kessel. Hondo's ship is in orbit, cruising. It seems he will be resting for today. Will you return to base, or begin pursuit?"

"I'll pursue. I have plenty of fuel, gear and credits. I'll spend the night here, and set off tomorrow. Might take a few days. Take care, Renegade two, and try not to burn the place down. You're in charge."

The reply sounded way more energetic than the earlier deadpan tone Renegade 2 had been trying to pull off.

"You got it, boss! Good hunting. Acting Commander out!"

Horatius couldn't help but smile at that. Renegade 2 was always trying to prove himself as a good right-hand man. Still smiling, Horatius left the starfighter in search of a place to spend the night.

 **Kessel, Two days later**

Having pursued the _Unwanted Visitor_ to Kessel, Horatius was now following Hondo on foot, having left his V19 at Loading Dock 4, the dock adjacent to where the _Unwanted Visitor_ was parked. Horatius didn't know what Hondo was here for, at a mine where the Empire's prisoners were put to work. Being sent to Kessel was basically a sentence for a painful and unhappy end to one's life. Horatius despised the place. Nobody except the very worst in the galaxy deserved to meet an end like this. Political prisoners, captured planets' resisting residents(men, women and children alike), and an assortment of victims to atrocities the Empire did not want the galaxy to now of; these people did not deserve to be shipped to the most brutal working environment in the galaxy.

Hondo stopped suddenly, and made his way over to a group of people waiting nearby, apparently for him. Horatius quickly took cover behind a rock outcrop to watch the exchange. Hondo had brought along with him a group of assorted reprogrammed CIS battle droids, who were pushing crates. Hondo handed over the crates to the group, who opened the crates to reveal...rations and supplies?! What was going on? As if in answer to this, the group began to speak to Hondo:

"Thank you, mister Ohnaka. We are in your debt for your help. Without the rations and medicine you bring to us, many of us would have perished at the hands of diseases or starvation."

"It was nothing, honestly. I just don't approve of what the Empire is doing to you. I am simply doing my part to support the opressed."

"You have our gratitude. We wish you good luck in all your future exploits."

"Hang in there, my good friends. And farewell."

"See you, space pirate.."

After seeing this encounter, Horatius' opinion of Hondo Ohnaka changed. Most of his prey were convicted criminals and con artists. Here was a scoundrel who was doing good for the innocent. After some consideration, Horatius decided to let his quarry go. He had come to respect the ageing pirate. His mind made up, he left for his starfighter.

As he approached the Dock 4, he could here blaster fire. Worried, he began to run. When he reached the dock, he saw a freighter that had landed next to his starfighter. As he watched, he saw that the crew of the ship were guiding a bunch of Wookies onto the freighter, while holding off a large brood of Stromtroopers. He realised that the crew were none other than the three crate thieves he had seen in the market square on Lothal! He saw a boy-the boy who stole from the crew-rush in with a

Wookie child by his side. Horatius saw that a stormtrooper was behind the boy and about to shoot.

In that moment, Horatius made a choice. He used an ability he had not used for years, out of fear of discovery. He had buried it deep down to prevent anyone realising what he could do. He focussed, and channelled his will at the trooper on the bridge behind the boy, and pushed. The trooper was thrown thirty metres, and over the bridge, plunging down the chasm, screaming. Horatius quickly shielded his mind and force signature. Nobody could know about his Force sensitivity, or his _other_ abilities, for that matter.

The boy looked around, searching for his savior, but saw no one. He had only seen the trooper fall.

Horatius was disturbed from his thoughts by an explosion. Someone had blow up his starfighter!

Horatius groaned. The Mandalorian had chucked a few thermal detonators, and one had blown apart his V19. He would confront the crew for compensation. Suddenly, he heard a sound he hadn't heard in over a decade:the igniting of a lightsaber. He turned to see the man in green, the smuggler, wielding a lightsabre. That certainly changed things. Making a decision, Horatius followed the boy to the freighter, and leapt through the closing ramp, landing in the cargo bay. He landed in front of the crew, who was staring at him, mouths agape.

Before he could as much as greet them, the Mando and the Lasat charged at him. With a weary, frustrated sigh, he stood to meet them. While dodging the Lasat's large arms coming for him, and the Mando's stun ray fire, Horatius wondered why most people preferred to shoot first and ask questions later? Might have something to do with being in the Outter Rim, where there were no rules, and only the fittest survived, he concluded. With blinding speed, Horatius struck the Lasat in the abdomen with enough force to knock him unconscious, and then threw the Lasat at the Mando, drawing strength from the force to let him lift and throw the Lasat. The Mando was knocked out by the sheer weight of the Lasat, going down with an "oomph!".

"Now, are we ready to behave like civilised men, or is there some more pointless confrontation to conduct?", Horatius asked irritably, only to find the smuggler pointing his lightsaber at him. With a annoyed glare at the Smuggler/Jedi, he did a backflip and threw a crate at his opponent.

Kanan Jarrus was jarred by the stranger who had just disabled two of his compatriots, both capable

fighters. Who was this guy?, he wondered, as he watched in shock, at how he dealt with the Mandalorian, Sabine, and his Lasat buddy Garazeb Orrelios. He leveled his lightsabre at the newcomer, only to be thrown a glare. The newcomer did a backflip and threw a crate at him, which he effortlessly cut through with his sabre, only to see the newcomer emerge with hand outstretched. Kanan was too late to realize the newcomer's ploy, and then everything went black.

Horatius was beginning to lose his patience with the crew. He turned to the boy with the blue eyes, and said in a dangerously calm tone,"what's your name, young man?"

"Ezra Bridger.", replied the boy, his gaze unfaltering.

"Right, Ezra, could you take me to the Captain of this vessel, I must speak to her. I sincerely hope that he or she isn't as hot-headed as this lot."

"No, she isn't. I'll take you to her. Follow me."

As the two made their way to the bridge, Horatius told the kid,"That was a neat piece of work, what you did with the speeder and the crates in the market, kid. Impressive."

The kid grinned at that,"It was pretty sweet, wasn't it?"

"It sure was. So, you're part of the crew, are you?"

Ezra frowned at that."Not exactly. It's complicated."

They had reached the bridge.

As the door hissed open, he was greeted by a pretty Twi'lek, her pistol aimed at his head.

"Oh, come on. Ezra, you told me she wasn't an idiot. What the heck, man?"

"Hera, don't shoot! He's here to talk, apparently."Ezra shouted before the standoff could escalate.

The Twi'lek named Hera lowered her pistol to Horatius' chest. A small improvement.

"Those were some pretty smooth moves, in the hold. Not many can knock out a Jedi, a Lasat Honour Guard Captain, and a Mandolorian, at the same time."

"I've got the skills to pay the bills",quipped Horatius.

"What is is that you want?"

"During your escape, the Mando chucking the charges destroyed my starfighter."

"A shame. It was a real beauty. I suppose you seek compensation?"

"Well, you see, I am a bounty hunter. But, lately, nothing interesting has really happened. I'm looking for adventure, and when I saw your crew, I realized that this was as good a place for any adventure-seeker. Also, I'm no fan of the Empire; so, I'd love to stick it to them."

"Don't bounty hunters benefit from the Empire, as they employ so many people like you to aid them?",questioned Hera.

"Let's just say that the Empire hurt my Family and wronged people I held dear, and I'm out for vengeance.", replied Horatius, with a sad smile.

"I see. We're a little tight on space, so there is the question of your quarters."

"I can solve the space problem, but it'll take a while to see to then, I just need some space to lay down my sleeping bag and a box of belongings. Your common room looks like it can spare the space, if that is alright?"

Hera considered it."All right, then."With a smile, she said,"Welcome aboard the Ghost."

He returned the smile, and looking at both Hera and Ezra(who had been watching the exchange with growing apprehension), said,"This is going to be interesting."

 **And that's it for the first Chapter of Reaching Out! Things really are going to get interesting now, with the mysterious Horatius Payne joining the _Ghost_ crew. How can he use the Force so well? Who exactly are the Renegades?What else is Payne hiding? All will be revealed in good time, so hang in there!**

 **Note-**

 **this story is not the same as the SWR show, as Horatius does not exist in the show. Think of it as an alternate universe, where Horatius was part of the crew, along with the rest of the original charaters.**

 **I am open to feedback and appreciate it, for what I want more than anything is for this to be a good story.**


	3. Chapter 2:Homecoming

**Once again, I'm very sorry about the mishap a while back where I deleted my story and reposted it. My bad.I hope this'll make it up to you.**

 **I found some time to write another chapter, so here goes.**

 **CHAPTER 2:** **Homecoming**

 **Lothal**

Horatius was not in the best of moods. He had decided to join the _Ghost_ crew in their rebel pursuits. Ezra too had decided to join the team, and had been promised Jedi training from Kanan, after revealing his connection to the Force to Kanan by opening up a Jedi Holocron using the Force. However, Kanan kept delaying the promised lessons, much to Ezra's chargrin. Ezra had settled in relatively comfortably well into the crew, bonding quickly with Hera(who seemed to be the maternal figure in the crew's lineup), and was on good terms with Kanan(the 'dad' figure?) and Sabine(who was friendly with him despite his obvious attempts at flirting). There was still quite a bit of friction between Zeb and Ezra though; partially because Zeb had left Ezra behind during the affair with the Wookie slaves, leaving Ezra to get himself out of imprisonment, and also because they now had to share a room with each other, something neither was happy about.

Horatius' transition into the crew wasn't as smooth; perhaps that was because he had thrashed more than half the crew in combat, when he had tried to hitch a ride with them, to generally poor reception. Hera was happy to welcome him aboard, as she knew someone with his skill set could be very handy:with underworld contacts, proficient fighting ability, weaponry and technical know-how, and other such useful skills. Kanan, however, wasn't as happy about him joining the crew. Something about bounty hunters being an untrustworthy lot, and him besting a Jedi, which, apparently was not possible for a bounty hunter. When Horatius had reminded him of how clones had wiped out most of his kind, Kanan had almost ignited his sabre, only for Horatius to lazily quip,"Master Jedi, do you need to be reminded what _this_ bounty hunter can do, without any weapon? How's that dent in your head healing?"

Seething, Kanan had put his lightsabre back onto his belt, and stormed off, muttering,"Kriffing son of a.."

The mandolorian, Sabine Wren had taken her defeat good-naturedly, commending Horatius' prowess and even asking if he was willing to teach her some of his moves. Horatius had agreed, thus earning himself another friend on the crew. The Lasat too, was wary of him. Feeling that payback was necessary, Zeb had been trying to catch Horatius by surprise, to no avail. Horatius was getting tired of Zeb's attempts at surprise attacks and pranks, and was considering letting the Lasat win once, to get some peace of mind, and not having to go from one room to another without being on guard for a Lasat coming head on at him screaming,"SURPRISE ATTACK! FOR THE GLORY OF LASAN!"

Like a wrecked, barren planet could have any , out of respect for the Lasat, Horatius had decided to not bring that up.

C1-10P, the Astromech with an attitude way bigger than his stature, affectionately known as "Chopper", had welcomed him with tiny robotic arms open wide and a happy chirping that shocked Hera(according to her, Chopper wasn't nice to anyone, ever). After watching Horatius take down three of his crew mates, Chopper had made him his hero, and dragged him all over the ship on a "special tour", complete with info on just about every nook and cranny of the ship. It had been hilarious, when he showed him Hera's cabin, adding that sometimes Kanan visited when the rest of the crew was asleep. The look of fury on Kanan's face, and Sabine and Zeb's attempts at keeping their faces straight and not laughing, was enough for Horatius to put two and two together.

Ezra had been friendly too, but had not talked a whole lot to him, as he was busy trying to get Kanan to start tutoring him in the ways of the Jedi. Horatius was reminded of a family he had once lived with when he had been stranded on Tatooine(his V19 had a torn coolant hose). The boy in that family was strikingly similar to Ezra, not so much in appearance, but plenty so in manner.

His reception, however, was not the cause of his bad mood. That was because he had been left on the ship with Hera, while the others got to go out and steal some on the other imperial shipment. And then, he was once again been left behind on the _Ghost_ while the others sold the T-7 Ion Disruptors(like the one Zeb used) they had scored to some dirtbag named Vizago. Zeb had been against selling them, vouching to destroy them instead. He understood why. The killing in the massacre of Lasan was done mostly with T-7s. Now, the Spectres' deal had been cut short with the arrival of the bucketheads, lead by big bucket, a.k.a Agent Kallus.

The commlink buzzed to life,"Hey, ass! We need to go! Start up the engines and lower the ramp!"

It was Kanan.

Innocently, Horatius replied,"Spectre 1, What's my name?"

"ASS!", came the angry reply.

"Bzzt. Wrong answer. Say it. Say my name."

"YOU KNOW I CAN'T, FOR CONFIDENTIALITY'S SAKE!"

"Then say my callsign. You know what it is. Say it."

"WE ARE GONNA DIE! OPEN UP!"

"Well, do you really want your ego to kill you all, Spectre 1?"

A pause, and a sigh.

"I can't believe this is happening. Spectre 7, can you please lower the ramp?"

"Ten-four, good buddy!", came the merry reply.

A few moments later, "Spectre 7, all are accounted for! Go, go, go!"

"Taking off now."

As soon as we were in the air, Hera came running into the cockpit and plopped herself in the pilot's seat. Taking control, she said,"Not bad, Horatius. Not many can fly my ship. It took Kanan a week to get the hang of taking off alone."

"Well, that's Kanan, isn't it? I doubt he could climb and ride a Bantha without help."

"You shouldn't be so hard on him, you know. He feels undermined, after being beaten by an unarmed stranger. His pride has been wounded."

"I see."

"Then again, it is good to put himself in his place, every now and then.", Hera said, flashing him a smile. Horatius grinned. Hera really was the best.

"So did I miss anything important while you were dealing with Vizago?"

"Well, when the buckets arrived, Kallus challenged Zeb to a duel. As Kallus was about to finish Zeb off, Ezra used the Force to throw Kallus, allowing our escape. Zeb'll be alright with a little rest. Also, the two droids we picked up earlier-C3P0 and R2-D2-we're going to return them for a reward. Even though the T-7s got destroyed, we'll still get some money from the droids' safe return."

"A somewhat happy ending, I guess."

"Kanan is going to start Ezra's Jedi training tomorrow.", added Hera.

Horatius smiled at that."Ezra must be very-"

The conversation was interrupted by a beeping on the console. The proximity alarm had been set off. Suddenly, two Star Destroyers and three light cruisers dropped out of hyperspace. Hera, got on the Intercom. "We're under attack! All spectres, battle stations!"

Kanan rushed to the central rotating turret, Sabine got on the nose gun, and the Zeb, still hurt, manned the rear guns. Hera made the _Ghost_ do a backflip

and punched the throttle to max. Ezra rushed into the cabin with Chopper just as multiple shots hit the Ghost. Ezra was thrown into a console facefirst and got electrocuted; he slid to the floor unconscious. Horatius got out of his chair, picked the teen up, and strapped him to the comm operator's seat. Chopper wheeled out to the main hold, where a fire had broken out.

Horatius pointed to an asteroid field up ahead."Go into the field and hide in one of the caves, you won't be able to make the jump to hyperspace wihtout neing blown to bits. Find a spot to hide, power down, and wait. I'm going to get some help. Don't leave, just wait, or the cruisers will get you."

"What-?"Hera began, but Horatius put his finger to her lips, and said,"Trust me, I'm going to get us out of this. I'm taking Zeb and the _Phantom_."

With that, he left a flustered Hera in the cockpit.

As he rushed to the shuttle, he ignored Kanan shouting,"What're you upto?", and made his way to the shuttle. Yanking Zeb out of the seat, he disengaged the _Phantom_ and flew out of the field. Quickly laying in the course and dodging the veritable rain of turbolaser fire from the cruisers, ignoring Zeb's protests, he pulled the throttle and made the jump.

"What the heck's all this then?", inquired Ezra, once he'd woken up, feeling downright terrible, when he realized that Hera had set them down in a deep crater's cave, and then turned off everything but heat, life support and Chopper.

"And where did Zeb and Horatius go off to?", Sabine added as a follow up question.

"What were you thinking, Hera, setting us in an asteroid field, surrounded by an Imperial convoy on all sides? We're trapped!", Kanan burst out.

"Everybody quite down."Hera sighed."We were taking heavy fire from the Destroyers. If we took one or two more hits like that, we would've died. Horatius pointed this small field out, where we could hide and carry out repairs. You can thank him for that."

"Thank him? He took Zeb and the _Phantom_ with him. We're stranded, in the middle of an asteroid field, in a deep cave, surrounded by imperials! So if we're going to be grateful for being handed a godforsaken death sentence, then yes, whoopee! Thank you, Horatius! I've always wanted to die in the middle of nowhere!"

"Oh, shut up, Kanan. He bought us some time. He told me he's going to get some help, to get us out of this mess."

"You trust him? A bounty hunter?"

"He isn't a bounty hunter, anymore. He's a Spectre. And that title is a promise: we look out for each other. When we were getting away from Kallus when the T-7 deal went south, he was there for us, when he could've just taken the _Ghost_ as compensation for his wrecked V19 Torrent!"

"That wasn't intentional!", interjected Sabine.

"But-", Kanan began to argue further, but Hera silenced him with a look, and told him, "The only reason you don't like him is because he beat you with ease and without a weapon! Your pride is wounded! Admit it already."

"It's not just that! What if he's a sith or an imperial spy, judging by his ruthlessness and ability?"

"His fighting wasn't antything like the styles they teach in Imperial Training. BASIC or ADVANCED, for that matter. It was...a mix. The way he dodged and responded..I'm thinking Mando, some Wookie Elite Guard, and even some of the Jedi melee forms. _And_ then some more.", provided Sabine.

Ezra, who had been quiet till now, piped up,"Kanan, if he was one of the Sith, we'd all be dead by now."

In his heart of hearts, Kanan knew the others were right.

"Kanan, I have a good feeling about Horatius, like we can trust him. He'll come through, he's not the sort to break others' trust.", Ezra added.

Kanan took a deep breadth, and nodded."Let's hope you're right kid. Now, let's get to repairs. We need to be ready to hightail it out of here if-when-he shows up. Chopper, fix up any external damage on the ship. Ezra, grab a space suit and go with Chopper. Take a toolbox and patching kit. Fix any breaches and leaks you can find. Sabine, do a diagnostics on the engine and hyperdrive. Do what you can. Hera, monitor and inform us off anything you see or needs to be done. I'll be fixing the control circuit box for the guns, it got dinged up pretty bad by the fire in the hold. Spectres, get cracking."

Everyone, knowing their duties, got to work, all the while praying that Horatius and Zeb would successful, and would get back in time to save them from all the imperial prowling about.

 **In another asteroid field, near Coruscant**

The _Phantom_ jumped out off hyperspace at the edge of the field.

Looking out, Zeb asked,"Where the hell have you brought us? We need to go back to the others! They're in trouble!"

"I know they are in trouble. I told Hera to hide in the asteroid field, and to wait till I got back."

"Why'd you tell her to wait?"

"'Cause I told her I'm going to get help. That's what I'm going to do. My ship's set down here somewhere. Now keep quite while I make a call."

The tone in his voice must've been pretty authoritative, or severe-pick one-because Zeb didn't argue, and sat down in the back.

Activating the comms, Horatius broadcasted the code phrase on the agreed channel:"A sunny day in the void, isn't it?"

A moment later, the comms buzzed.

"Renegade Leader, is that you?"

"Affirmative, Renegade Two. I'll explain everything later. Right now, get the shp ready, we need to 've got some friends who are in trouble, and need our help."

"About that, Renegade Leader..."

"What's the matter, Renegade two? Don't tell me, you set the ship on fire."

"What?! No! It's not that. Although, the ship might get destroyed, if you don't get here. Immediately."

"All right, send me the coordinates of the cave you're camped out in."

"Sending coordinates now."

"Received. We're on our way now. Be there in a bit."

"Where're we going?",called Zeb from the back.

"Home", Horatius shouted back.

Zeb stood next to Horatius in the cockpit, as he piloted the _Phantom_ slowly into a cave in one of the larger asteroids. As he watched, a frigate came into the view. It resembled a Hammerhead Corvette, but was significantly different. The Hammerhead's iconic front section(where the bridge was), which was curved, was way buffer and better armoured than a typical hammer head. Besides the two turrets on the sides in the front, the middle section had rotating turrets, six on each side:port and starboard. The back section had two turrets as well, one on top, and two on the bottom. The back section had four fins, one each on the port, starboard, top and bottom. The fins looked razor sharp. The ship itself was bigger than a hammerhead, and had three hanger doors.

There were boosters scattered across the ship's surface, at different angles. Across the hull, a faded grey and white clone trooper was running with a rifle in his hand was painted. By his side, were four droids:Three astromechs, and a pit droid, chasing after him. The word _Breakthrough_ was stencilled on the port side, in faded paint.

"Renegade Two, we're in front of Hangar door 3. Open up."

"Now opening. Good to have you back. We were getting worried."

As soon as the duo walked out of the shuttle, they were greeted by four droids. Horatius held up his hand, gesturing for them to cease communicating, for a while, anyway.

"Good to be back, everyone. I missed this place, and am happy that Renegade Two didn't burn the ship down. As you can see, I have brought a friend. This is Captain Garazeb Orrelios, of the Lasat Honour Guard. You can call him Zeb. No, Gold, he's not a _hairless wookie with skin infection_! He's a Lasat, they're different!"

Zeb growled.

"See? Wookies roar, Lasats growl. Big difference! Although, I'm pretty sure they're droid-dismantling methods are the same. So, behave. Zeb, allow me to introduce my crew, known as the D Squad, during the Clone Wars."

Gesturing to a magenta droid, Horatius said,"This is QT-KT, or Magneta, the Comms Officer." Magneta stayed quiet, studying the stranger.

"This is U9-C4, called Gold. He's the weapon's specialist, and artillery officer.", pointing to a golden droid, who chirped out a greeting.

"Now, this here, is AZI-3, our medic. He has the ability to change form from Astromech to Medical droid. We gave him that ability to disguise him. He is wanted by the Empire. You see, he discovered a conspiracy that the Emperor, back when he was the Chancellor of the Republic, didn't want people to know about. He's called Fives, in homage to a fallen friend of is."As Zeb watched in surprise, the navy blue C1 astromech turned into a Medical Droid, who warmly greeted the Lasat in a reedy, computerized voice:"koh-to-yah, Captain Orellios!"

"Um, hello to you too?", replied an uncertain Zeb.

"All right, all right. What was the problem you wanted to tell me about, Cyclops?"Said Horatius, referring to the last of the gathered droids, a rather beat-up pit droid.

"There's an imperial patrol headed here. A squad of Shock Troopers, who detected the ship when we powered up the reactor for a bit to move the ship when the cave we were initially in collapsed when another asteroid struck it. Scans indicate twenty of them headed here in a Lamda-class shuttle! They'll be here within the hour."

"All right, here's the plan: WAC-47, I mean Cyclops, sorry; lift the strutlock and power down everything but the Life support and gravity. Gold! Switch off the turrets' MagLock and point them in haphazard directions. Magenta! Engineer a fake distress signal, and make it extremely weak. Fives, go lock down the reactor room and the cockpit. Open up the cargo hold door, and lock up the others. Withdraw three of the struts, randomly, so that the ship look tilted. We're going to make this ship look like it's been abandoned for ages. When the troopers board, we'll take them out one group at a time. They'll probably split into two groups:one headed for the cockpit, and the other to the hangar and storage area. And Zeb?"Zeb looked up, wondering what his part was going to be.

"You up for some bucket-busting?"

Zeb gave his answer in the form of an evil grin.

"This is Buccaneer Team, heading in to investigate a slight reading we noticed a while back in a nearby asteroid field.

We are now landing at the incident site."

The Lambda-class shuttle _Intrigue_ landed before the frigate.

"The ship is a frigate, looks like a modified corvette or something. Looks like some kind of accident took place here. The ship is tilted, and we're getting no readings from inside the ship, just a weak distress beacon that looks like it's been running for a while now. The cargo hold door's open, we'll enter through there, take a look around."

The twenty Shock Troopers disembarked the ship, leaving their pilot droid in the ship.

As soon as they boarded, the Captain took one half, Team X, to the cockpit, to retrieve the flight recorder and see it the ship was still flightworthy. The other half, Team Y, led by a Lieutenant, went to check the hangar, and the storage area adjacent, to see if anything of value could be salvaged. This was a standard op, one of several their unit had dealt with, as ship-related incidents came into the Shock Troopers' jurisdiction. The troopers were bored as hell. Unfortunately for them, things were about to get interesting.

The pilot droid K6-X1, monitored the troopers' progress and transmission. K6 was a little worried, as the asteroid field's clustered arrangement interfered with comms and made communication outside the field more or less impossible. K6's thought process was interrupted by a sudden inslaught of transmissions.

" _GRENADE! TAKE COVER!_ "

FIZZT. The signature sound of a SHOK-D4 shock charge set to kill being set off.

Suddenly, the vital signals for six troopers of Team Y went dead, signalling death.

" _WHAT IS THAT EMERGING FROM THE HANGAR ENTRANCE! WATCH OUT! IT'S USING A BO-RIFLE! AAAARGH!_ "

Another Y vital sign went dead.

" _OH, GOD! IS THAT...A WOOKIE?!WHERE'S THE HAIR, AND WHY IN THE BLAZES IS IT PURPLE?_ "

" _LOOK AT IT'S EYES! THEY'RE YELLOW! MUST BE RADIATION SICKNESS!_ "

A bone-chilling growl was heard over the comm." _I. AM. NOT. A. FRICKING. WOOKIE!_ "

Two shots being fired off a bo-rifle were heard.

The signs of the troopers who had been talking went dead. The bo-shots had met their mark. This was followed by the sound of heavy steps, frantic blaster fire, and the sickening sounds of bones breaking. The last two survivors of Y-team had just met their end.

K6 fired up the engines. He had to get away and warn the Empire! Before he could reach for the landing brake release lever, a cannon came out of a slot in the curved elongated front section of the ship. An ion cannon. The cannon fired one single burst. As soon as the _Intrigue_ was hit, it shut down, its electronics disabled. The droid, K6, coming into the category of 'electronic', was disabled too. Buccaneer Team wan't headed anywhere, except, perhaps, Hell.

The captain, who was leading X team to the cockpit, had heard the whole thing over his comm. Further more, contact with the _Intrigue_ and K6had been lost.

This worrying turn of events led him to believe they had walked into a trap. The ship was not as desolate as it looked.

He decided to press on towards the bridge. The 'not a Wookie' couldn't catch up, as it was a pretty long jaunt from their location to the hangar.

Suddenly, one of his men, shouted,"Halt, who goes there? In the name of the Galactic Empire, identify yourself!"

"Show yourself, you coward!", cried another one of his men.

Out of nowhere, two bolts of blaster fire came, and hit the two men who had spoken. They crumpled limply, dead.

"I'm no coward. A coward is someone who takes over the galaxy using innocent men under his control to do all the dirty work. Like that Emperor of yours. You know, the one who still hasn't grown a pair, even though he's like what, 400? Then again, judging by all those wrinkles covering him, he doesn't really really need a pair, does he? I mean no one in the whole _Universe_ will want _that,_ will they?"

"Why you vile son of a bantha-trading, scum-drinking-"

 _Bang. Bang._

Another two men dropped, including the one who had just been insulting the unseen shooter.

"What are you?",asked another one of his men, a rookie.

"Your worst nightmare.", came the reply, echoing off the walls.

Out of the shadows, emerged a man in white and grey armour, brandishing twin combat pistols, with a long-range rifle slung over his back, and grenades lining a sling attached to his chest plate.

Without further ado, the man shot three more men before they could react, and dived behind a wall. Quickly, a grenade was thrown from behind the wall. The shock grenade took out another man. The captain rose to fire from his safe position behind a crate to fire, only to see another man get shot in the head, and saw a bolt coming at him, and felt it struck him in the throat. Pain engulfed the captain, he knew what was next, a slow and painful death. Turning his head, with great difficulty, to look at the man who had bested him and his men, he rasped,"Stranger, please.."

The man in white and grey armour approached him, blaster in hand.

"Kill me. Please.", begged the Captain, wanting a quick ending.

"All right.",replied the stranger."But not because you told me to."

Horatius took aim, and fired, putting the Shock Trooper captain out of his misery. As soon as he did, the power came back on. The droids, having seen that all hostiles had been eliminated, had restored power.

Horatius took deep breaths, his pulse still racing. His eyes were wide, and his heart refused to slow down. He could hear the voices again, of his comrades, his brothers. All the people he had watched die. He heard explosions and the rhythm of battle droids marching into battle, guns blazing. It felt like yesterday...

Horatius felt a tap on his shoulder, and jerked around, pistols ready, only to see Cyclops and Fives.

"Woah there! We're friends, remember? Anyways, power has been restored, the landing struts realigned, and the threat neutralised. All in a good day's work! I'm going to take Magneta with me to bring in the imperial shuttle outside. Remove the transponder, and boom! We have a new addition to our current lineup! See you in a jiffy!"Cyclops said all this very fast, and ran off, cackling madly at the prospect of a new salvage. Once, Cyclops had left, Fives came forward with a draft of calming nectar. "You had another episode, did you not? From your time in the war? You're still hyperventilating. It Must've been a pretty intense episode. Now, drink up. It'll help, trust me."

Horatius, took a swig, with shaking hands. In a few moments, he began to feel much better. His breathing eased, the voices subsided, and his memories faded away.

"Ah, mucho better! That's one hell of a pick-me-up you brewed up.",remarked Horatius.

With a satisfied hum, Fives continued, "Your friend, Zeb, is in the hangar waiting for you."With an amused beep, he added,"Gold and the Lasat captain have become fast friends, it seems."

Horatius smiled. Gold loved weaponry of any kind, and the bo-rifle was one of his favourites. Anyone with a bo-rifle could count on making friends with Gold with ease.

"All right, I'll head there."

On reaching the hangar, where the droids and Zeb had assembled, Horatius gave the droids a recap of what had happened while he had gone. The part with him thrashing Zeb, Sabine, and Kanan was met with applause, much to Zeb's annoyance.

At the end of it, Magneta stepped forward, and asked in beeps,"Have you finally found us a family, somewhere we'll belong?", on behalf of all the droids. Horatius replied with a smile,"Yes, I have."

The droids chirped happily at that, with Fives and Cyclops, supplementing the chirps with "Yowzah!" and "Booyakasha! At last!"

When he told Zeb, who didn't understand binary, he too, grinned. "The more the merrier", he exclaimed, with a 'pat' that left Horatius breathless. Seeing him gasping for air, Zeb added mischieviously,"We're even now, Payne. What's next?"

It was Horatius' turn to grin. "Now we get back to the asteroid field where the _Ghost_ is parked out, and we give the imperials hell. With love, from the Spectres."

 **With that, we conclude the second chapter! I'll add the next chapter next week, give or take a couple of days. So, sometime around the weekend, I guess, is when I'll post next. Hang tight till then!**

 **Do leave a review to voice your thoughts on my work!**

 **See you next week!**

 **MTFBWYA,**

 **Demoltioneer**


	4. Chapter 3:Making a Breakthrough

**Wahahaha! Surprise post!**

 **CHAPTER 3:** **Making a** ** _Breakthrough_**

 **Asteroid field near Lothal**

"They're getting closer.", beeped Chopper, in response to the tremors shaking the cave the _Ghost_ was parked out in.

"They must have dispatched bombers on bombing runs across the field to get us out of hiding. They won't be able to pick us up on scanners, thanks to all the debris everywhere, and all the stealth upgrades we've rigged this baby with.", informed Sabine, lovingly stroking the dashboard. "Although, the bombing isn't a bad idea. They're hoping we'll fly out of our cave, thinking the cave is collapsing. We're in a cave that won't be affected by the shocks as we are parked too deep. We'll only feel some tremors."

"That's reassuring.", Ezra said, as the ship rocked a little. "Nothing ever goes wrong with us, does it?"That remark earned him a punch in the shoulder from Sabine.

"The ship is more or less fixed; we can do the minor repairs later. The only problem is when will Zeb and Horatius show up?", spoke Kanan.

"They'll come through. It's only been a few hours.", replied Hera. "They should hurry up, though. Sooner or later, the Empire will catch on and think of something.", added Hera.

As Ezra, Sabine and Chop left for the rec table, with Ezra betting on Sabine winning, in an attempt to get closer to the Mandolorian. Little did he know, that Chopper was the best player on the ship.

As soon as they had left, Kanan sat down in the co-pilot's chair, next to Hera.

"Hera, what're we going to do if Zeb and Payne don't arrive in time?"

Hera gave Kanan a reassuring smile, and sweetly replied,"We'll figure something out, like we always do. I don't really care, as long as you're by my side, love."

Kanan couldn't help but smile at that.

"Sir, the bombers haven't been able to locate the rebel ship. They're waiting for new orders.", reported a lieutenant.

Captain Pheyllo, who was in charge of the operation, took in this new piece of information, and thought hard on their next course of action. The crew hiding in the asteroid field had been causing a lot of trouble on Lothal, and the brass were taking a special interest in the case. Outter Rim Command(resentfully called 'the ORCs' by locals, because of the imperials' indifference, cruelty, and their barbaric tendency to take whatever they wanted: from land to women to raw materials and finished goods) wanted to set an example of the Spectres by publicly executing them and broadcasting the execution on the Holonet as a warning to others.

Pheyllo realized that the Rebels must have taken refuge in a deep cave, otherwise they would have seen them out in the open, or detected a heat spike due to the ship being destroyed, at the very least. After some consideration, he issued orders.

"Tell the bombers to return to base. Outfit each bomber's bay to hold deep-boring, high potency WREKIT-9 charges, as many as they can carry in their holds. Make two triggers: one for me, and another for you. The bombers will plant one charge on every large asteroid."

"Very well, sir.", replied the lieutenant. "It will take approximately two hours to gather the charges, modify the bombers' racks, and load them. It should take about half and hour to place the charges in the asteroids. Accounting for any unforeseen circumstances, the charges will be ready for use in about three hours."

"Get to it."

As the lieutenant went off to carry out his orders, Pheyllo, couldn't help but pity the rebels. They had no way out, with two Star Destroyers and three light cruisers surrounding and patrolling the asteroid field. They were cornered Nothing could help them out of this one.

As it is with most imperials, he had no idea just how wrong he was.

 **Asteroid field near Coruscant**

"So, you're a clone trooper, huh?", asked Zeb, once he had taken a closer look at the armour Horatius was wearing.

Horatius had told everyone the plan, and given everyone their assignments. They were walking to the _Phantom_.

"Yes, I was. An Advanced Recon Commando, holding the rank of Commander, if it really interests you all that much. My serial number is CT-0002 or ARC-0002."

"Did you, you know, take part in the Jedi purge?"

"No, I didn't. A while before Order 66 was issued, I had taken a shot to the head. It was a graze, but the bolt fried the chip in my head. I woke up after the Empire had taken over, in an abandoned outpost not far from Kessel. D Squad was all that was left at the base, apart from my ship. A solar flare had resulted in Evacuation, and since I couldn't be moved 'cause I was hooked upto so much equipment, I was left behind."

"If you had, I don't think Kanan would have like it one bit. You being a clone will piss him off like hell. Wait a second, why are you not old? Didn't clones mature at double the normal rate?"

"I'm one of the first hundred clones to be created from Jango Fett's DNA. Generation 1 was made under the impression the army would be kept around for a looong time, so the first hundred were created with a maturing rate 80% that of a human. I'll be around for a bit longer than the rest of you."

"Interesting."

What he didn't tell Zeb was that all the Gen 1 clones had been...different. Most of them had died, but the ones who survived, they were...different. 0099 had been disfigured, 0003 was more of a thinker than a fighter, with enhance intelligence, 0100 was blind, but his other senses had been heightened by 250%. He, 0002, was Force-sensitive, something unprecedented in cloning history. He had kept his abilities secret to avoid attention, which would have probably resulted in his disection. However, the cloners on Kamino had noticed his higher endurance, greater strength, increased perception and thinking and quick reflexes. These traits had earned him the rank of ARC Commander on day one of testing. He didn't want to reveal that part to his newfound friends just yet.

"Zeb, contact Hera, tell her about the plan, and get ready to roll."

"I'm on it, Spectre 7." Zeb was all business now.

As he ran the rest of the way to the shuttle, he stopped, and called out to the clone,"For what it's worth, I'm happy that you're a part of the family." And he ran off.

Horatius stopped running back to the bridge when he heard that. He stood there for a while, pondering what the Lasat had just said to him.

 _Family.._

 **Asteroid field near Lothal**

Hera was beginning to get worried. It had been almost eight hours since the _Phantom_ had departed, and the imperials were getting closer. They were probably going to realize that they were hiding in a deep cave. As a precaution, she had left only the life support, having turned off the heat as well. Chopper, after winning the bet and realizing they were going to turn him off, had put a valiant fight, but was eventually cornered by Sabine and Ezra, and turned off. He sat, disabled, in Zeb and Ezra's room.

Her worries were put to ease when the commlink beeped, and the display read 'Zeb Orrelios'.

"Hey, Zeb's calling! I'm routing the call to the living room!"Hera quickly routed the call and ran to the living room, where the crew gathered every morning, played, talked and unound. The others had already sit down around the dejarik table. Kanan scooted over, making room for her. Hera gave him a grateful smile, and sat down next to him.

"Zeb, please have some good news, we really need it. The Empire's practically knocking on the door.", implored Ezra.

"Woah, the situation must be pretty bad. Fret not, my good friends! Horatius has come up with a brilliant plan, of which I'm only allowed to tell you a part of it, as he wants it to be a surprise." Ignoring the protests, he went on to tell them the part of the plan he was supposed to.

The others were going to love it, the Lasat thought with a grin. As he finished telling them the plan, he turned to Kanan, and said,"Kanan, don't be harsh with Horatius when you realize who he is, okay? He's risking just about everything for us. He's family; like it or not."

"I'll do my best, Zeb.", replied Kanan, making no promises. He felt uneasy. Who could Horatius be, for Zeb to warn him and tell him to lay off the enigmatic seventh Spectre?

"Now, be ready you lot. And sit tight. Kid, try not to wet yourself!", Zeb's hologram went out with him winking at Ezra.

"I'm going to kill him!", Ezra promised himself.

"Don't count on it.", Sabine teased.

"Grr..."

"All right, all right.", broke in Hera,"We need to be ready to take off immediately, like Zeb said. Get to your stations."

"And then what?", asked Kanan.

"We wait. For whatever 'surprise' to be set off. Zeb'll signal us when we need to get out of this cramped cave."

"I hate surprises.", Ezra muttered.

"Join the club.", Kanan retorted.

 **Asteroid field near Coruscant**

Magneta and Gold were getting the contraption, dubbed "the Siren", ready. Once, they were satisfied with their work, they placed it right behind Hangar door 1.

"Will this work?", asked Zeb, ever the doubtful one.

"Yes, it will. That is why you've got tostay ready to leave to extract the crew and get the hell out of here; if the plan doesn't work out."

"All right, all right."

Magneta and Gold zoomed off to the bridge, where the others were waiting.

On the bridge, Horatius was doing last minute checks. Satisfied, he sat down on the captains chair.

"All hands, to action stations!", he boomed.

The droids got to their positions.

Cyclops at the pilot's seat, ready to rock the boat.

Magneta, at the comms station.

Gold, huddled in the CIC, plugged in, humming the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Fives, in his default configurations, sat at the Control Tower for the hangar. He had the controls for Hangar Doors 1 and 3 ready to open, as they were crucial to the plan and contingency plan, respectively.

"All right, here's a quick recap of what's going to go down. We're going to make the jump from here to Lothal, _through the asteroid field_ where the other Spectres are. I've tweaked the nav system so that the ship can travel through the field at lightspeed, hopefully. As soon as we're about to enter the the field, HD-1 will be momentarily opened to let the Siren out in the middle of the field. We'll close the door, and drop out of lightspeed near Lothal, and a few klicks from the lead Star Destroyer, the _Condemner,_ while in stealth mode, so that the imperials can't catch us on their scopes. Let's do this."

A cheer rose from the droids.

"Cyclops, engage stealth mode, and then take us out."

"At once, boss!"

With that, cyclops flicked the switch marked 'ENGAGE CLOAK MODE', and punched the throttle.

With that, the _Breakthrough_ jumped in a small flash of light its seriously overclocked hyperdrive made every time the frigate made a jump. Cyclops had installed that specially. After all, what good is cool stuff if you can't flaunt it?

 **Asteroid field near Lothal**

"Captain, I might've picked something up.", notified one of the techiess.

"What is it?"

The tech frowned."Just a small blip that came out of nowhere, It disappeared as soon as it appeared. Strange."

"Probably a glitch. The debris is driving the scopes crazy.", replied the Captain.

Pheyllo was beginning t get a little impatient. He'd been given the trigger for the charges, but it would be another hour before they were in place. He was also beginning to wonder why the rebels hadn't tried something yet. This particular band of them was known for their desperate but effective ploys, that had on more than one occasion, turned the tables in the rebels' favour.

As if to answer his question, a scope tech piped up, "Captain! A large mass is headed our way! Quite possibly one of the bigger asteroids."

This must be one of the rebels' signature gamechanging ploys. They had probably strapped some explosives of their own onto an asteroid's back and detonated. Using the blast-propelled asteroid to clear a path for escape was a gutsy move, not to mention creative. Pheyllo was impressed. But he wasn't one to back down.

He got a channel open to the other Star Destroyer, the _Vindicator,_ gave orders to the other captain.

"Captain Pollatu, spearhead formation! We're going to run down the oncoming asteroid!"

"Affirmative, Captain Pheyllo!"

The _Vindicator_ and _Condemner_ came together, one on top of another, both of their bottoms facing one another, and turbolasers pointed dead ahead, to obliterate the oncoming asteroid.

The mass on the scope came closer.

The light cruisers lined up on the opposite end of the field, to avoid the debris that would go everywhere once the asteroid bound for the Destroyers had blasted apart.

The crew held their breath.

The captains kept looking outside the windows for any sign of the oncoming asteroid.

CIC's gunners were ready roll, only nothing seemed to appear.

"What?!", spluttered Pheyllo, as a small object became visible outside, emerging from the field. The scopes identified it to be a large mass, but all he could see was a small trinket.

"Scopes, scan that object!"

"Scanning...Scan complete. It appears to be a jerryrigged comms array. That array belongs on a Venator-class cruiser."

"Then what the hell is it doing here?"

"Sir, we're being hailed on all channels by an unknown party.", called one of the comm techs.

"Accept the call. Broadcast ship-wide."

All the speakers began to blare out a series electronic beeps in rapid succession."

"What does it mean?"

The comm tech had gone a little pale."It's an astromech sir. It's..laughing."

"Unknown droid, what is all this?"

The rapid beeping subsided. The droid made a few beeps and a whir.

"Well?", Pheyllo asked the tech.

The tech had gone very pale.

"'Death from above.'"

"Nice prank call, Gold! Now get ready for some blasting, cause we might need it! Cyclops! Disable stealth mode! Power up the ram and fins! Go all out! Full speed ahead!"

"Going all out now, captain", replied the pit droid, all the while cackling madly.

"Magneta! Jamming, now! All channels!"

"Already done, boss.", chirped Magneta.

With a jerk, the initially drifting _Breakthrough_ lurched forwards, picking up speed quickly. It was heading straight for the Star Destroyers, still in spearhead formation. The curved front of the frigate and the fins at the back began to glow.

The ion cannon fired a single shot.

"Sir! Unknown contact, right above us! It's heading straight for us! Shall we move out of its -?"

Suddenly, the whole ship went dark. The ion cannon had found its mark. The _Condemner_ was dead in space. With Pheyllo's ship blocking Pollatu's scopes, the _Vindicator_ wouldn't see the frigate coming. And Pheyllo couldn't even warn the other Destroyer. Pheyllo couldn't help but admire the unknown ship's captain. It was brilliant really.

Using a comm array of a large ship like a Venator was a stroke of genius. The scope would recognize the Venator's array, and ping it as a large object, which would make anyone in an asteroid field think an asteroid was coming their way. They had fallen for it, and made their ships come together in the hope to use the combined firepower to take care of the asteroid. Thus, the frigate's captain had his targets in one place, and did not have to worry about multiple places to look out for, with the light cruisers having moved to the other side of the field. They wouldn't be able to contact the Destroyers through all the debris in the field. The Destroyers couldn't move out of the way fast enough. Ingenious.

There was no way out. Pheyllo resigned himself to his fate. His only regret was he didn't have a drink in his hand.

With a small smile, he muttered,"Well played.", and waited for the end.

The _Breakthrough_ simply cut through the two Destroyers; it's front ram made the dent, and the rear fins(outfitted with laser-cutters on the edges) did the rest. The ram's force and the fins' laser edge ploughed through without a worry. With one bold strategy, he had trashed two Star Destroyers. No big deal.

"Karabast! That was incredible!", whooped the Lasat.

"Now let's go get the rest of the Spectres.", said Horatius.

"What about the light cruisers?"

"Oh, please. They would've seen two Destroyers getting totalled by a ship not even half their size. They'll be retreating by now."

Sure enough, the three signatures of the light cruisers on the scopes disappeared, indicating that they had jumped.

The _Ghost shook._ The airlock near the mid-section turret hissed. They were being boarded.

"Everyone! Converge on Airlock 2! We're being boarded! _",_ Hera's voice could be heard over the intercom.

In moments, everyone had converged at the Airlock.

Sabine cocked her pistols.

Kanan ignited his sabre.

Ezra took aim with his slingshot.

Hera primed the two shock grenades Sabine had given her.

The door hissed open.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! It's us, morons! This is how you thank the people who saved you from certain doom?"

Hera recognized the Lasats voice.

"Well, I wouldn't call it 'certain', I'm sure we would have eventually figured something out."

"Riiight.", said the Lasat, rolling his eyes as he stepped into the ship. "Anyways, we have some new additions to the crew. Say hello to D Squad!"

Zeb introduced each droid as they stepped into the ship, and once they all had come in, introduced the crew to the droids.

"Nice emblem.", Sabine complimented to the droids.

On some part or the other, of each droid, emblazoned was a grey and white Loth-wolf insignia.

"Thank you, miss Wren. Horatius drew them, and said the same about your starbird emblem.", Fives graciously replied on behalf of the squad.

"And now, before I tell you of what happened while you were cowering here like a flock of Loth-cats in a cave in winter, let's have a round of applause for the man responsible for your rescue! I give you, Horatiuuus Paaaayne!"

Horatius stepped into the ship, garbed in what appeared to be clone armour, Wolfpack armour, ARC Edition.

As soon as he saw the armour, the helmet, and the way he stood(the way a war veteran stood), Kanan charged at him, screaming, "DIE, TRAITOROUS VERMIN!". Before he could strike down the clone, something blocked him.

Blocking his blue sabre, was another lightsabre, glowing grey; and wielding it, holding it in a way that showed that he knew how to use it, was Horatius Payne.

"Kanan-no-everyone,we need to talk. Ezra, could you be a dear and get some Mocoa brewing?"


	5. Chapter 4:Fine Tuning Required

**Aaaand I'm back. Get ready to RUMBLE! Here's an extra long chapter, with a touch of romance and heartbreak(not necessarily in that order) added just for you, beloved readers!**

 **Happy reading!**

 **CHAPTER 4:** **Fine Tuning Required**

 **Asteroid field near Lothal**

"Ezra, what's the status on the mocoa?", Horatius asked, while parrying another attempt by Kanan to kill him.

"Um, I guess, maybe another five minutes till it's ready to drink?" Ezra's eyes were wide. He couldn't believe it. Two Jedi? And he got to watch them battle? He must be one lucky kid.

"Shave it down to two. Kanan, will you at least let me explain before you kill yourself trying to hurt me?", Horatius asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Clone scum! Which Jedi did you kill and steal that sabre from? That colour is against regulation!", rambled Kanan.

"Hey, Kanan. Mace Windu called. He'd like you stick yourself deeper in that mud, and drown. Oh, look at that! Mandalore called too! They'd like you to go screw yourself!(Sabine started laughing) It's mine, dumbass! I passed the Gathering! I got the parts aboard the _Crucible!_ _I assembled it in the presence of three Jedi masters and then battled them with it as a final test of my ability! What more do you want?_ "

"Oh yeah, which masters did you do this in the presence of?"

"Obi-wan Kenobi! Plo Koon! Master Yoda! And, I managed to emerge unscathed! That's three more than you, Padawan _Dume._ "

Kanan paused."How do you know my name? And rank?"

"Because, _Caleb_ , I saw you a few times at the temple. Your master, Depa Billaba, is the one who oversaw my training of Form III."

"She did? She...never even told me."

With that, Kanan withdrew, and sat on a nearby crate.

Putting his lightsabre back in the secret compartment in his armour's chestplate, Horatius went over to the crate next to Kanan and sat next to him. He took two cups of the eagerly awaited mocoa from Ezra, took one for himself, and gave the other to Kanan. Taking a sip, Horatius replied,

"She couldn't, Kanan. It was a closely kept secret. If they knew, the Kaminoans would have dragged me back to Kamino and cut me open to try and figure out how to make more of me."Looking at the rest of them, he said,"Now, without further ado, allow me to tell you my story."

"Unlike majority of the GAR, Generation I clones had been created before the Republic ordered them. Kaminoans had been messing around with Jango Fett's DNA in the hopes of creating an all-purpose soldier. They fiddled with our tanks, intakes, genes and body structure. You name it. However, Gen I wasn't as amazing they hoped we would be. A quarter of us were disfigured or disabled in some way. Another quarter died in the tanks. The remaining fifty clones were special, but not in the ways they hoped. Six of us came with the whole enhanced human deal:stronger, sharper, faster. The rest were not really made for battle. Seeing the abysmal success rate of producing supersoldiers to be a discouraging six percent, they cast their supersoldier ambitions aside and decided to work on generic troopers for armies. A bit before the war and a little while after Obi-wan's discovery at Kamino, Plo Koon visited with Yoda and Mace Windu to inspect the troops. He sensed that I was able to use the Force. He discreetly had me assigned to the Wolfpack. He informed the Jedi High Council about me. The Council decided to train me in the ways of the Jedi . And thus began my training. Three of the most intense months of my life. Under the tutelage of various Jedi who were exceptionally skilled in their practiced Forms of wielding the lightsabre, I learned and made myself proficient in the seven Forms. It was Master Yoda who oversaw my training in Form I. Ki-Adi-Mundi taught me Form II. Depa Billaba showed me how to apply Form III, while Obi-wan Kenobi guided me through Form IV. Aayla Secura helped me get the hang of Form V. I was taught the way of Form VI much later, by a Pau'an Temple Guard who was absolutely marvelous with his double-bladed lightsabre. Mace Windu taught me how to channel my feelings through Form VII. Besides this, they taught me how to use the force: almost everything from mind tricks to kinesis to unlocking locks to communicating with one's mind, and more. They told me the Force was exceptionally strong in me, as if the Force had decided to set up shop inside me, for I had been gifted with some long-forgotten and incredibly rare abilities. After my training period, which had been covered up as an undercover black op deep in CIS territory, I was dispatched to the Wolfpack under General Koon. He and I were master and padawan, though virtually no one knew of my apprenticeship. Eventually, during the rescue operation for Eeth Koth for which I was under General Gallia, I was knighted for my actions in holding off on my own an detachment of Droidekas and Super Battle Droids that had boarded one of the frigates in a attempt to hijack it and drive it into a Venator's bridge. For the remainder of the war, I followed my master. When the war ended, and with my master gone(his voice cracked at this), I set off on a journey to refine my skills, attune my senses and become one with the force. Eventually, having become restless without the thrill of any adventure, I became a bounty hunter. A year later, I meet you lot, and here I am!"

"I see."

Kanan was quiet for a while.

"So, you are a Jedi in full?", inquired Ezra.

"Mmmm...not really, I guess. I am a Jedi Knight, yes, but I never was a fan of the whole 'clear your head! Feel nothing! Attachments'll kill you!' paradigm. I feel that our love for others is what makes anything worth fighting for, you know? You want a better future to spend with them? Desires aren't all about money and power. One could want a peaceful galaxy, a place to settle down in, and so on; they aren't evil things to ask for. It's not about good and bad, it's who you are and how you affect others that matters. So, no, not a Jedi exactly. A while back, I came across a word that appealed to my beliefs in my travels, on a planet of ruins, in a language long forgotten, told to me by the last living descendant of a dynasty that had stood aeons ago, but is no more. 'Ohsar'. It means 'boundary', or 'balance'. I like to think of myself as an 'Ohsarlan', which means 'someone walking in between'. The light and the dark, in the end it is just the Force. Force-users are defined by how they put their powers from the Force to use."

"Interesting. Why is your lightsabre grey?"

"When I went through the cave one must travel through as part of the Gathering, my search led me to the deepest sanctum of the cave, where I found my kyber crystal. It was initially blue; but then it turned red! It seemed to be telling me that I was conflicted in my emotions. I sat in that cave for hours, meditating, letting out all my turmoil and confusion. I confided my views on the Jedi and Sith to the crystal, who seemed to understand exactly how I felt. The two orders were extreme in their teachings, beliefs and path. Moderation, I felt, was what was needed. A middle ground, incorporating the best of the two orders to give something better: a future without turmoil, where the Force wasn't stretched the way it is, and Force users could be themselves and accept each other. When I opened my eyes from meditation, I saw that my crystal had turned grey. A voice ringed out in the cave. 'Clone! You are different , for you see more to the Force than just light and dark! You have the capacity to bridge the gap in the Force, and to sooth the strain that has ailed it for millenia.', it boomed.'In ten years' time, return here. There is something you must be given to propel you further. You are not ready yet, so wait, you must. Fare thee well, Clone!'"Horatius paused for breath, saw that everyone was listening to him with great interest(even Chopper was silent), and continued,"The Council was surprised when they saw my lightsabre. For not only was it grey, but it was also built differently, to accomodate all the forms I had been taught. They saw this as a sign of coming change, but could make nothing of what this change could be. And now, they're gone..", Horatius reflected sadly.

Breaking the silence, Ezra spoke up.

"Horatius, I'd like to be tutored by you in the way of the Ohsarlan. All this Jedi order stuff is just too much baggage to lug around. Your way appeals to me more. Will you please accept me as your padawan?"

Kanan, who was going to say something, looked hurt and sad on hearing Ezra's request. Ezra had asked him earlier about Jedi lessons, and he was going to begin his lessons the next day.

With a smile, and in a kind tone, he replied,"No Ezra, I cannot. It's not because I don't want to, but because you have already formed a bond of padawan and master with Kanan here. I can feel the connection in the Force. He is your teacher, and I know he'll guide you well. You're in safe hands. Or else.."

Kanan, who had been watching Horatius quitely so far, stood up, and approached the clone. In a tone less hostile than his initial one, he said,

"Thank you. I would be honoured to have Ezra as my student, and will raise him to the best of my ability."

"I'm counting on it, Jarrus.",responded Horatius with a wry smile.

Kanan wasn't done talking. What he said next surprised Horatius.

" _I'd_ like to be your student. My training was never fully completed. Besides that, I would like to learn your unique fighting style, so that I too can incorporate it in my fighting."

Horatius just looked at him. And smiled acceptingly.

"Challenge accepted, my padawan."

"I shall give it my very best..master", came the hesitant reply.

"Ay, what about me?", piped up Sabine."You promised to teach me some of your sweet moves!"

Typical mando. Fight, train, sleep, repeat. That's Mandalorians in a nutshell for you.

"Fine, I'll train you, if I can."

Just as he thought he was done there, Horatius felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and was amazed to see that Zeb was the tapper.

"Yes, Zeb?", he asked warily.

"Well...it's been a while since I was in a melee brawl, so I'm kinda rusty. I was wondering if, maybe..."

Horatius realised what the lasat was getting at. He felt bad that Kallus had beaten him with a weapon his kind were supposed to be masters at wielding. He felt that being one of the last of his kind, he had to uphold the honour of the lasats. He wanted to spar with Horatius to hone his skills and get back his mojo.

"Of course I'll spar with you! That's what family is for, right? We help each other."

Zeb smiled in thanks.

Horatius realized the only person he hadn't given something was Hera; oh, and Chopper. He thought about it, and came up with a solution. Looking at her, he said, "Sunshine, I'm sorry I don't have anything to give you , but if you'd like, D Squad could give you an in-depth tour of the _Breakthrough_. It's pretty neat, actually. Who knows? You might like it."

Hera blushed at being called Sunshine, but before anyone could notice, replied with all the cheek she could muster,"I'd love that. I can fix all the mistakes you lot must've made up. Breaks my heart to see a ship treated badly."

Gesturing for the indignant D Squad to pipe down; he looked her in the eye, and with a small laugh and an understanding wink, said,"That settles that. Oh, and Chop, how'd you like a refurbishing package to fix up all the dinged-up hardware in you, a result of all the battles you've won(a clever afterthought, so as to not tick the C1 astro off)?"

Chopper happily agreed, and was whisked away by Fives to the droid maintenance room.

"Hera, the droids'll show you around the ship's inner workings tomorrow, all right? Good. As for the rest of you, Sabine, Kanan, Zeb; training starts tomorrow, an hour after breakfast."

An hour later, the two ships had left the asteroid field and made their way back to Lothal; landing in a desolate area with a stream and some trees, called Brigand's Landing. Another hour later, the crew had calmed down from the run-in with the _Condemner_. Cracking under the onslaught of requests from the rest of the Spectres, he agreed to let them have a tour of the ship, with Cyclops acting as a tour guide.

"I'm settling in for some shut-eye. Been a loong day. Good night", Horatius said as he walked down a corridor, presumably to his cabin.

"'Night", called back the Spectres.

The tour was over in an hour and an half. The crew was impressed with the frigate. The _Breakthrough_ was one hell of a ship.

"She's amazing!", squealed Hera.

"She's beautiful. These paintings are incredible!", Sabine, the artist, commented, in regard to all the drawings painted all over the ship.

"Yes, they are pretty sweet, aren't they?", agreed Cyclops. "One day, out of boredom, we decided to paint up the frigate. We'd grown sick of the drab correlian white colour scheme. Horatius and us spent the next three weeks painting, all over the ship. Some of them are depictions of Horatius' or him and our collective exploits, and tells our story. It signifies our bond and friendship."

Taking a more serious tone, he continued,"Now, I'd like to show you something, in hopes that it'll give you a better understanding of Horatius. His life is not as easy as he might make it look. You are being shown what you will see to serve as a reminder: he is a person, with feelings, fears desires and more; he is not a hail-mary pass for any difficult situation, which is how he was seen in the Clone Wars. This belief has caused him much harm. Follow me."

Intrigued, the crew followed Cyclops to a section of the ship, whose entrance had a handmade sign that read:"Horatius' digs."

'Horatius' had been scribbled above a scratched up word which couldn't be made out.

As the group moved further, they heard something being played over the intercom speakers of the corridor:

"GRENADE! CLEAR THE-" _BOOM_

" _RYLE IS DOWN, GET A MEDIC!"_

" _THIS IS ZEN! WE'RE TAKING HEAVY FIRE FROM ANTI-AIR ARTILLERY! SOMEONE NEEDS TO CLEAR OUT THOSE DAMNED GUNS, OR WE WON'T MAKE IT TO THE-WAAAGH!"_

 _BOOM_

" _This is general Plo Koon, withdraw behind Rendezvous Point Tango! The bombers shall commence their run shortly!"_

" _Wolffe here. Mission successful. We're on our way back now. Over and out."_

There, on one side of the corridor, there was mattress, and tucked in and sleeping there was Horatius. There was a small clock, and a bottle of water by his side. From under his pillow, one of his twin combat pistols could be seen protuding out.

"What's all this? _",_ asked a puzzled Ezra to Cyclops.

"These are recordings of transmissions from various battles from the Wolfpack Campaigns, which is the battalion Horatius was in, led by Plo Koon."Looking at them sadly, he continued."Horatius was called in to deal with the most violent and dangerous situations. Many a time, Republic command would send him in alone against hundred of droids, as there were either no men to spare, or because they couldn't cope with the situation's difficulty. They didn't understand what he went through, what he saw. ARC-0002 has a droid kill count of 582006, and has taken part in 76 battles, 90 covert operations, and a recorded battle time of 2 years and forty-seven minutes, in a war lasting three years. He's been pushed to the very limits of endurance: both physical and psychological. He has seen and done things that'll drive most people insane. He has been scarred so horrifically that he still hasn't quite recovered from it all. He can't sleep properly, has nightmares and panic attacks of days of a war gone by. He fought so hard and for so long, the only place he seems to function normally is in a battlefield environment. The past both soothes him, and jaunts him. He does not sleep in any of the dorms across the ship because when he sees the empty bunks, it reminds him of all the brothers that are not by his side anymore; either dead, or decommissioned and forgotten. He plays these old recordings to help him sleep at night. Most of the time, it works. He still follows his training routine from his time in the War. Sometimes, when he's alone, he talks to people he saw die: friends, generals, brothers, and innocents he couldn't save; he apologises to them again and again, tells them he avenged them. Occassionally, he'll just stare off into space blankly, lost in memories. War got to him pretty bad. On behalf of D Squad, I ask this of you, please don't use him like that again. He looks out for us, and we look out for him. He is not just our leader, but also our friend, mentor and guardian. Do you understand?"

"We do. We wouldn't hurt family, and you guys are a part of our family. I promise, on behalf of the Spectres.", affirmed Hera. The others nodded and murmured in agreement.

"Thank you.", replied Cyclops, relieved. In a lighter tone, he added, "Who wants some grub? Fives would have prepared dinner by now. I assure you, food can't get any better than what Fives has to offer."

 **Brigand's Landing, the next day.**

"Waha! Surprise!"

"Eeep! Grenade! Clear the area!", screamed Sabine.

"Go, go, go!", yelled Kanan.

A small object was thrown, and Kanan, Sabine and Zeb dove to avoid it, getting clear in the nick of time.

Zeb groaned. "How much further?"

"Well, we've got to get to the bridge. So, not much.", informed Sabine.

"I didn't sign up for this! This is crazy!"

"Well, you did ask to join in, when you saw that Horatius was going to conduct a training exercise for us. So, yeah, you did sign up."

Horatius had turned his frigate into a training ground. This was his idea of a 'warm-up exercise':He would hunt them, and if they got caught in the blast of any of his grenades(the grenades simply exploded in some glowing green paint that disappeared after an hour), they were out. Apparently, this was an ARC exercise for raising situational awareness and quickening battlefield reflexes. It was working. The trio had never felt so jumpy before. Supplemented with his grenades, he had scattered thoughout the ship an assortment of reprogrammed droids he had recovered over the years. He had told them to stick together, as they would encounter droids that one would be strong against, while the others would have trouble against, and vice versa. This was done in a bid to help them work together as a team.

Two Magnaguards armed with bo-rifles appeared, and Zeb jumped in. He struck with speed and ferocity, and dispatched the two droids in moments. Zeb's melee skills were improving rapidly, and he was beginning to regain some of his old confidence. Next, four commando droids appeared, wielding shortswords and pistols.

"Sabine, tag in!"

Zeb leapt back, and Sabine came forward, pistols blazing. The commandos too were demolished quickly.

Eight training droids came, floating out of reach, zipping about quickly and firing off low-powered bolts at the trio. Kanan came forward and went to work. Using the Force, he was able to see their next moves and predict when they were about to shoot. Kanan went to work with his sabre. However, he was shot twice in the process. Massaging where the bolts had struck, he pressed on to finish of the last of the droids. Boy, it stung. The trio moved forward. Horatius appeared. "Waha! More grenades!"

The trio dove for cover, and pursued Horatius into a darkened corridor. He leapt over the threesome, but Kanan sensed him. Quickly he turned to where Horatius had landed, pointing his lightsabre at the his master, in his ARC armour. Sabine and Zeb had noticed his movement and had followed suit. They were pointing their guns at him too.

"Game over, master. We win.", said Kanan with a grin.

Horatius still had his back turned to them.

"Oh, do you now? Not on my watch."

He pressed a button on his belt.

 _SPLAT!_

The trio was splattered with paint. As he had jumped over them, Horatius had planted a remote bomb between where the three stood. He knew Kanan would sense him, and in his hurry to win, wouldn't notice the charge at his feet.

"Waha. Surprise."

"My armour's paint job! Nooooo!", wailed Sabine.

"Relax. It'll disappear in an hour. Green's not bad on you, though.", he teased.

Turning to Kanan, who was trying to wipe the paint of his hair, he said,"Kanan, as the leader, you must not be hasty or go rushing in. That's what you have the others for. You must rein them in, assess the situation, understand your enemy and discern their moves. It's you who'll be pulling the team through. Stay calm, and don't let the thought of an early or easy victory drive your actions. The mission must be completed, yes. But success is worthless if you lose everything in your haste. Medals and victory in a battle mean nothing if you are not there to win the war. Look at the big picture."

"I understand, master."

"I know you do. And, the way you handled and coordinated the team is praiseworthy. Well done. Kudos to all of you."

The three brightened at the praise. They had done a decent job.

"Now go clean yourselves up. We might spar afterwards."

The trio returned to the _Ghost_ to clean up.

"It went that bad, huh?", quipped Ezra when he saw his paint-covered comrades enter the ship, as he sat with Hera in the cooking area, helping prepare lunch.

"It was all going pretty well untill Horatius got bored, lured us into a darkened part of the ship, and floored us. With one move.", Sabine informed with a sigh.

"He must be one hell of a fighter.",observed Hera.

"They didn't just give away the position of ARC Commander for nothing. So, yeah. Go figure.", provided Kanan, who knew a little about clone ranking, profiling and segregation.

They left to clean up. The Spectres ate lunch outside by the stream. It was peaceful. After lunch, Hera and Chopper went off with Gold and Magneta for the promised in-depth tour of the _Breakthrough_. Cyclops was doing some upgrades on the hyperdrive and the reactor, the two loves of his life, who he had named Obi and Wan, respectively, for Yoda knows what reason.

An hour later, Kanan took Ezra to start his lessons in the ways of the Force. Sabine went off on a supply run for the usual: groceries, spare parts, paint, ammo and of course, explosives.

That left Zeb and Horatius. Horatius went to his ship, and came back ten minutes later with a bo-rifle of his own, painted his signature grey. When he saw the look on Zeb's face, he explained,"On a minor mission to Lasan to pick up the Senate representative for Lasan, I led a band of troopers to fight of a platoon of commando droids sent to kill off the senator. As a token of appreciation, I was presented a bo-rifle, and trained in its use for a week or so. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I had ever been given. Gold modified it for me to use more easily and added some extra features as well. I use it when I'm out hunting. It's a great substitute for my lightsabre, which'll attract too much attention."

Zeb relaxed.

"Now, let's dance!"

For the next hour, they sparred. Both were winded at the end of it, and lay gasping on the ground. The match had culminated in a draw. Zeb had blocked every thrust, and Horatius had dodged every one of Zeb's attacks. They were evenly matched.

"Fantastic, Zeb! A few more moves and you'd have had me."

Zeb grinned. "You're pretty good yourself."

"Pretty good? That fight was downright incredible!", broke out Ezra. Hera, Ezra, Kanan and the droids had been watching the match.

"Thanks, kid.",replied Zeb.

"Sabine's coming back. Time to put the supplies away.", said Hera.

With that, the lot of them headed to meet Sabine, who was returning on one of the speeders Horatius had lent her from his ship's storage. They got to work putting the stuff away. Some of it was put on the frigate, as Horatius had a lot of extra space.

Then, the crew sat down in the rec room aboard the _Breakthrough_ for a bit of rest. Hera was expecting a transmission form one of her contacts, so she went to the _Ghost_ to receive it.

The transmission started off with the Fulcrum code phrase("by the light of Lothal's moons").

"Greetings, Spectre Two. I have some information for you", Fulcrum began in the usual scrambler's voice used to disguise one's voice. "What is your status? I heard you ran into some trouble with imperials in the asteroid field near Lothal."

"We're fine now. With some help, we were able to ward off the imperials."

"You managed to get rid of two Destroyers and three light cruisers? Must be some help you had."

Hera told Fulcrum about the seventh Spectre.

"Impressive.", mused Fulcrum before continuing,"some disturbing intel has come my way, but I cannot tell you of it over commlink or hologram for fear of interception. Send someone to my location, which I' sending now, and I'll provide them with the intel. Send this Horatius Payne. I would like to meet him;he must be trustworthy if he went so far as to wreck two Star Destroyers for your crew."

"Understood. He'll be there."

"Over and out."

The link went dead. So, Fulcrum had taken a special interest in Horatius. She would send him the next day.

When she approached Horatius for the job, he accepted immediately. "Anything for you, Hera.", was his reply, much to her embarrassment.

She wondered, was Horatius interested in her? Nah, he didn't seem like that kind of person. He knew about Kanan and her, after all. Blowing it off as him being nice, she went on her way.

Kanan had been adamant on "going where his master went"(Ezra too tried the same excuse in hopes of tagging along with them), but Hera had refused, citing that Fulcrum wanted only Horatius to come. Eventually, seeing that Hera wasn't going to back down, he caved in. Making sure nobody was nearby, she quietly went over to him and gave him a kiss on the lips. "Maybe you staying behind won't be so bad, hm?", Hera asked him with raised eyebrows.

Kanan didn't seem to mind being left behind so much after that.

Horatius and D Squad set off next morning, having received coordinates and the meeting place and time, taking the _Breakthrough._ Brigand's Landing felt empty without him. No sounds of sparring or "Waha! Surprise!" or the droids working on the frigate made it feel pretty lonely, even though there were five people and a droid still there. They still had a job or two to run, and errands to finish here and there, so they went about their business, all the while wondering when Horatius would return, and with what new intel.

 **The _Breakthrough,_ in Hyperspace**

"ETA: thirty minutes. Renegade Leader, prepare to disembark. The _Blade Runner_ is prepped and ready to go. **"**

"Copy that, Renegade Three(Fives). I'm on my way to the hangar. **"**

Twenty-five minutes later, having got his gear together, Horatius reached his U-Wing, called _Blade Runner_. He was garbed in trousers, a shirt and a waterproof jacket. His twin pistols were holstered at his side, his lightsabre hidden away, and his grey bo-rifle in its special folded configuration(devised by Gold for easier carrying), was slung on his belt.

As he strapped himself in, the recently reprogrammed K6-X1 (dubbed 'Deadpan' because of his unchanging, droning voice), who was his co-pilot, took them out through Hangar Door 2. They had reached Jedha.

The rest of the droids would stay on the frigate, in orbit in stealth mode.

"Good hunting, Renegade Leader", wished the voice of Cyclops.

Deadpan took the ship out, and flew them down to Jedha.

As soon as they were planetside, Horatius commed the droids and told them he had arrived. Leaving Deadpan with the ship, he left the spaceport.

Fifteen minutes later, he reached the venue, a hangout spot known simply as 'the Alley'. Most illegal deals on Jedha were set up here itself.

As he walked in, he saw that it was deserted today. Traffic in Jedha had slowed down significantly since the imperials showed up and started mining for Kyber. They were sucking Jedha dry, little by little. Imperial presence was mostly confined to the ancient Jedi temples scattered all over Jedha, which held deposits of Kyber. He walked over to a small dumbwaiter attached to a wall, and opened it up. Inside, was a scrap of paper and a pen. He wrote on the paper what he wanted to drink. He put the paper back inside, and up it went. Five minutes later, the dumbwaiter came back, and inside was his drinks. Horatius had ordered two glasses, one for him and the other for Fulcrum. He had ordered Proth'sa, a speciality sweet drink made from a fruit found only on Jedha. He removed the drinks from the lift, and put in their place the credits he owed for the drinks. The waiter closed itself, and went back up.

"Proth'sa. Not a bad choice.", said a voice behind him.

Without turning back, he replied,"a drink for all occasions, and one that doesn't get you drunk. One needs his or her wits about in a place like this."

"I concur."

The cloaked figure that was Fulcrum came and sat next to him on one of the rusted tables scattered all over the place. On looking closer, he realised that Fulcrum was a woman, a Togruta, it seemed.

He recited the passphrase that had been agreed upon: "What's a pretty face like you doing in a place like this?"

"Just passing through.", came the correct response.

Coming closer, he looked at Fulcrum, only to find a pair of blue eyes looking back at him with some scrutiny.

"A clone, huh? The beard and the shaggy hair do a pretty good job of disguising you, but the eyes are unmistakable. They are the eyes of a man who has seen war firsthand. So why aren't you all old like the rest of them?", mused Fulcrum.

"I'm Gen 1. Unlike the rest, Gen 1 clones have a growth rate of eighty percent that of a human, so no accelerated ageing for me."

"Interesting. Any other surprises I should know about?", the Togruta asked. He could see a thin smile under the hood.

"Eh, a few."He shrugged.

"I can hardly wait to find out. Now, to business. My contact told me about the imperial occupation of Jedha, and the mining of Kyber. What's unsettling is that they sell none of it, and don't use it to generate power either. The shipments are just sent to Eadu and a few other small planets. The Kyber's being stockpiled. For what, though? That's what I'm here to find out, and that's what we're going to do. There's an imperial Kyber storage facility not far from here, where the kyber is kept before it is shipped off. We're going to make a copy of the shipping logs and manifests. That should tell us something about the crystals' purpose."

"'We?'"

"Oh, yes. You and I are going to find out. I want to see what you're capable of."

"A test of my skills. Is that what all this is?"

"Think of it more as an...outing. Knowing clones, you've never gone out with a girl before, have you?"

Fulcrum laughed, blue eyes twinkling with amusement at the clone's discomfort.

"The only lady I know is my ship."Seriously, Horatius; that's your comeback?, he thought to himself.

"Well, let's fix that, shall we?", the togruta replied, still chuckling, holding out her arm.

"I feel like this isn't going to go my way.", he muttered as he took her arm and lead her out.

"It never really does, for us rebels."

With that, they set off. They're drinks were left untouched, untill a passing smuggler came across the drinks sitting there and put them to good use.

"We'll take your ship. My freighter's too bulky and might be picked up on scanners. I saw your U-wing, it's smaller and faster.", said Ahsoka.

"And upgraded and modified to appear on scopes as a natural occurrence, or not at all.", added Horatius, with a hint of pride.

They were walking back to the spaceport where the _Blade Runner_ was parked. They walked in silence.

Breaking the silence, Fulcrum asked in a teasing tone, "is this really the first time you're with a girl?"

"No."

"So, have you ever loved anyone?"

Horatius was quiet for a minute, then made up his mind. Might as well tell her. Who did she have to tell this to? It was a worthless scrap of information.

"Yeah, once. A long time ago."

Up ahead, some kind of collision had occurred between some speeders. The road was blocked, and Accident Control wasn't going to arrive for another twenty minutes.

"Well, since we're going to be here a while, I could do with a story. 'The Clone Who Loved Me'. Mm. A catchy title."Pointing to a small open-air cantina, she said,"Come on, then. I'm starving."

They found a table and sat down. Fulcrum removed her hood and cloak, draping it over her chair. Horatius saw her fully for the first time. She was not pretty; she was gorgeous, articulate and graceful. Her skin was a tone of orange like that of the setting sun.

Her eyes were lovely, dark blue and deep. The markings on her face were white-grey:his favourite colour scheme(it reminded him of all the good times he had had with his brothers and General Koon when he was with the Wolfpack), and the colour of his lightsabre. He would've gazed at her all day, but Fulcrum reminded him:"you were about to tell me the story of the only person you ever loved. Go on!"

Snapping out of his trance, he said,"All right, all right. Here goes. A few months after Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's Ryloth campaign, I was sent there on a...vacation, I guess. General Koon, on seeing just how battered I was and that I looked like I was about to fall over, ordered me to take two weeks off from battles and covert ops; training some Twi'leks in military warfare so that they would be able to fight for their planet. There, I met Resa. She looked a lot like Hera, except she was a little taller than Hera. Anyways, on my third day on Ryloth, some newcomer set off the trigger on a thermal detonator. Quickly, I grabbed it and placed it inside an AT-TE in the hope of mitigating some of the blast damage through the AT-TE's armour; but didn't get out of the AT-TE in time. I got caught in the blast. I was out for a day-and a half, and confined to bedrest for a week. During that time, Resa volunteered to take care of me. She felt she owed me for saving her and the all the people in the compound from the blast. I got to know her better. She wasn't just a pretty face. She was very intelligent, kind and fun to be around. She knew the funniest and/or bawdiest of jokes, pulled the most devastating and hilarious of pranks, and could stall a cruiser with that smile of hers. On the fifth day of my bedrest, she came into my room, and thinking I was asleep, sat down and wept. I pretended to be woken up by her coming in, got up and asked her what the matter was. She told me that her father, who was a respected figure in the community, had died. Her mother had died giving birth to her. Her father was her only family. I told her about how I didn't have parents or a family, and how it must've been nice to have a father while growing up. I also told her family isn't just blood relations, it's also people you love and cherish more than anything. People who you want to be with, because they complete you. She thanked me for those words. We began to grow closer with each passing day. Two days later, I was up and instructing again. One day, when Resa and I were doing an inventory of the armoury, she came close me, and said,'you complete me.' And then she kissed me! In a dusty old armoury. In that moment, I realized that I had come to care for her too. We spent the remainder of my time there together. We trained together, ate together and more. I loved her like I had loved nothing else in my life, and she loved me with all her heart. Even after my tour there ended, I somehow found time to visit her between operations and campaigns. She'd always be there in her family's ancestral home. I loved the way she grinned when she opened the door and saw me standing with something on the other I had got for her from wherever I was coming from. She kept a crate where she kept everything I had ever brought her. She said that when I was away, she'd open up the crate everyday, and just hold one of the things I had got her; and think about me and pray for my well-being. Those visits were what kept me sane through all the crazy stuff I pulled off. Then, one day, a week before I had to leave for Cato Neimodia, I dropped by at her place, hoping to surprise her and spend the week with her before I had to report to master Plo. When I reached her home, I found it empty. On the porch, a picture of her with me, when I was on Ryloth as a trainer, was hung. Next to it, was a photo of her father. The pictures were surrounded by flowers. A passing neighbour recognized me as the 'Trooper who visited young Resa quite ofen', and told me what had happened to her. One night, a group of drunk men had happened upon Resa, as she was returning from the school where she taught, and the leader of the group had made advances on her. When she refused his advances, he and his cronies beat her brutally untill she was unconscious. They took whatever valuables and money she had, and left her in the street, wounded. Alone! With no help! It wasn't untill the next morning that a farmer heading to his fields found her. She was rushed to the hospital. She asked for me, and a message was sent asking me to come. The message never reached me."

Horatius' voice shook and cracked as he remembered his beloved Resa. A droid arrived with their food and drinks. As he told his stories, Fulcrum had been listening with rapt attention. Horatius wet his mouth with the sweet drink, and continued.

"She had succumbed to her wounds a few days prior, in a hospital, without me holding her hand or standing there by her side and taking care of her like she had done for me. I had failed her when she had needed me most! She died alone and in pain! She didn't deserve an end so horrible!"

Horatius looked down so that Fulcrum couldn't see the tears forming in his eyes. She heard her softly ask,"What did you do about the people who had hurt her?"

"Over the next few days, I tracked down each of her attackers, and killed each of them, with my bare hands, all of them in one night. Ryloth has been preyed upon like that ever since. After I had avenged her, I buried her on a hill we used to visit often, close to the training compound where I first me her. And that, is the story of the only woman I ever loved."

"That was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever heard.", Fulcrum said. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah well, thanks for listening."

"You're the Night's Vengeance, aren't you?", she asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"A long time ago on Ryloth, a woman had been beaten and robbed by a group of drunks. The woman had died of her injuries a while later. Her death did not go unpunished. It is said a man took matters into his own hands; he hunted down and killed each of the men responsible. They had been beaten to death the same way the woman had been; the debt repaid, the man disappeared into the night.

They dubbed him the 'Night's Vengeance', because he had killed each of the nine men responsible in the dead of one night, and it is said that the sound of their pleas for mercy and bones breaking could be heard throughout the city."

Fulcrum was very smart, he had to give her that.

Horatius nodded. Fulcrum looked deep into his eyes, and he returned her gaze evenly. They were interrupted out of the blue by a disembodied, computerized cough.

The droid had come back with the bill. They averted their gazes, and looked away.

Horatius payed for the meal, ignoring Fulcrum's protests that she could pay for her share.

Horatius looked up at the droid to ask him to give the cook his thanks, and his jaw fell open. There could be no mistake; it was him alright. The years had barely had any effect on him.

"Huyang, is that really you?"

The droid staggered, as if it had been slapped.

"You know me?", he asked.

"'Course I do! You helped me pick out the parts for-", he stopped himself there. Fulcrum was watching him with a curious expression etched on her face. Ignoring her look, he continued carefully, "What's a droid like you doing in a place like this?"

Gloomily, replied,"After the Jedi order was wiped out, I escaped to Jedha aboard the _Crucible II_ , and landed here. I spent my days exploring and living in the temples all over the planet. When the Empire arrived and started mining the temples, I fled to this city. Here, some scumbag pinned a restraining bolt on me and sold me as a waiter here. It's terrible here. No pay, constant abuse, zero repairs and/or appreciation."

"You deserve better, Huyang. How'd you like to come and live with me on my ship, the _Breakthrough_? There are other droids there who're my friends. You'll be loved, maintained and appreciated, and that is a promise."

"Respect and maintenance; love and appreciation. I'd love that! But this confounded bolt prevents me from leaving!", rattled the ancient weapons' specialist.

"What bolt?"Horatius casually removed the restraining bolt with a multitool he always carried. With a raised eyebrow, he looked at the droid, and said,"you coming or what?"

Huyang was still for a moment; then, with a small whoop he set down his plate, and followed the clone and the togruta(once more hidden under her cloak, chuckling at the initially despondent droid's sudden mood shift) out of the cantina, whistling a merry tune.

The wrecked speeders had been cleared away, and the trio made their way through to the spaceport. They boarded the U-Wing and took off. After making a stop at the frigate, to let off and introduce Huyang to the droids, the U-Wing once more entered Jedha's atmosphere.

"Where to, Fulcrum?", asked Horatius.

Fulcrum put a hand on his shoulder and leaned over the nav computer, punching in some coordinates. He looked over to her as she set in the course. Through the force, he felt her aura and mood. Fulcrum was different. Her aura, unlike most, was in layers. The inner layer was blocked by a barrier she had probably trained herself to put up to shield her mind from others. Typical spy. He sensed a lot of pain and grief, some anger, and a smidge of nervousness about her. She caught him staring at her, and winked at him. Embarrassed, he turned away, and focussed on flying to the coordinates Fulcrum had provided. As soon as they were above the storage facility, the two put on two jetpacks stowed in a footlocker. Horatius told Deadpan to stay in the area, and on his signal, to come down for extraction. Together, the two rebels jumped out of the U-Wing's left door, hurling towards the imperial facility below. Horatius was going to be called 'X' for the duration of the operation, and Fulcrum was going by 'Y'.

"X, this is Y."There was a hint of fear in Fulcrum's voice."My jetpack is jammed up. It isn't working."

"Copy that,Y."replied Horatius in a calm tone."Don't move too much. I'm approaching your position now."

"Roger that, X. Hurry."

"Affirmative."

Horatius glided over to Fulcrum. She put her arms around his neck, and he put his arms around her waist. When they were close enough to the ground, he activated the jetpack. He also used the Force to slow their descent and to lighten the burden on the jetpack. They landed on their feet almost noiselessly. He quickly surveyed their surroundings. All clear. He turned to Fulcrum, to see her looking right at him, eyes still wide.

"Nice save.", she said.

"Anytime", he coolly replied. Slowly, he let go of her waist. She didn't seem to realise, and kept looking deep into his eyes, as if looking for something.

"Y?"

That got her out of her trance, she realised she still had her arms around his neck, and released him, blushing a little.

"Sorry about that.", she apologised sheepishly.

"No worries. Shall we?"

"With pleasure.", she replied with a grin.

With that, the two headed towards the entrance of the databank building.

As they approached the door, they saw two stormtroopers. Horatius unclipped his folded up bo-rifle and opened it up. He set it to sniper mode, and an adjustable scope popped from a slot. Taking aim, he fired two suppressed bursts, and the two bucketheads fell instantly.

"Smooth", complimented Fulcrum.

"I try."

The duo moved inside in sync. Horatius took care of any patrolling stormtroopers with his bo-rifle, now in silenced assault rifle mode. Gold had thought of everything. Fulcrum navigated them to the main databank. Once, they were there, Fulcrum connected a black plug-in to the central node, and made a copy of the entire archive.

"There may be some _other_ useful stuff in here.", she explained.

As soon, as the copy was made, the duo headed back. "Deadpan, pickup. Immediately.", signalled Horatius to the U-Wing.

They were waiting for their ride at the agreed upon LZ, when a voice behind them shouted,"Halt! Identify yourselves!" It was a stormtrooper, with his blaster pointed at Fulcrum.

Horatius debated if he should use the Force and thus reveal his abilities to Fulcrum, but before he could make a decision, the U-Wing appeared, and landed. Deadpan stepped outside, and addressed the stormtrooper,"Trooper, why are you harassing these inspectors? They were here on a surprise inspection to gauge this facility's competence and efficiency. Do you want this place to be put under a microscope?"

The trooper recognized Deadpan as an imperial droid.

"Why are you using a non-imperial transport, then?"

"So as to not alert you people of an imminent inspection, you dolt! That way, you won't be able to clean up any messes you might've made."

The stormtrooper couldn't help but agree with the droid's logic. Plus, he didn't want the facility to be shut down. He needed the credits.

"I see. Inspectors, please forgive my rude intrusion. Good day." With a salute, he walked off, glad they hadn't asked for his name or ID.

Marvelling at their luck and the buckethead's stupidity, Fulcrum, Deadpan and Horatius quickly climbed aboard, and took off.

Half an hour later, the _Blade Runner_ landed at he spaceport again. Horatius walked Fulcrum to her white and blue Hammerhead Corvette, the _Crusader_. They stopped at the ramp, and talked about the her ship and his' for a while. She promised to send the decrypted intel to Hera ASAP. Eventually, it was time to part ways.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye.", began Horatius.

"For now.", interrupted Fulcrum, with a grin."See you."

She began to walk off, but mid-way, she turned around, ran back to him, stood on her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. From behind them, Deadpan(who had come to see the two bid each other goodbye) wolf-whistled in his signature deadpan tone.

Both of them looked away, embarrassed.

"Goodbye, Horatius Payne."

"See you, Fulcrum."

As she left, she stopped and said with an embarrassed smile, "I never did tell you my name. It's Tano. Ahsoka Tano."

With that, she went on her way.

"May the Force be with you, Ahsoka Tano.", Horatius bid s her oftly. Then, he too walked off to his ship with Deadpan trailing. He too had get home, to his family.

 **Hope you like it, folks!There's plenty more from where that came!**

 **Leave a review, or Private Message(PM) me with any suggestions you would like to chip in with. I'd appreciate it if y'all left me some recommendations and feedback.**

 **MTFBWYA**

 **Demolitioneer**


	6. Chapter5:Inquisitiveness Killed the Jedi

**Welcome back, true believers, to another episode of _Reaching Out_! A warning:things might get intense in this particular chapter. Let us begin.**

 **CHAPTER 5:** **Inquisitiveness Killed the Jedi**

It felt good to be home, Horatius thought as he sat in the Captain's chair on his beloved frigate.

He had returned home three days previously. In his absence, Zeb and Ezra had had a run-in with some imperials over a Meiloorun fruit, and had managed to snag a TIE fighter. He didn't believe their claims that they had crashed it like Hera and Kanan told them to. He was going to approach them discreetly, asking them to let Cyclops get his hands on the TIE. They would probably agree, because he would tell Hera and Kanan if they didn't. Checkmate, fools, Horatius concluded, satisfied.

Horatius was conducting a ship-to-ship combat drill on the bridge of the _Breakthrough_ when Magneta piped up, "boss, we've got a small contact falling fast, headed towards us. Visual contact in 3, 2 , 1..Contact!"

To his shock and horror, he saw Ezra falling out of the sky! The kid must've fallen out of the _Ghost,_ which Hera had parked at a higher altitude so as to get a better signal to intercept imperial transmissions(She would give them to Magneta, who'd decrypt it and add the intel to their joint databank, which was growing fast). How had he managed to fall out?

As he watched, wondering if he should use the Force to help Ezra, he saw Ezra stop mid-air, and the _Ghost_ swoop in and grab Ezra. He ran out to meet the freighter as it landed. He rushed in and checked up on Ezra.

"Ezra, I saw you fall. Everything all right?"

Despite being shaken, Ezra replied with a weak smile,"I'll live."

Horatius turned to Kanan and Zeb, who had been standing there silently. "What the hell happened out there?"

"Master, I was training Ezra in deflecting objects with a sabre, but he was unable to deflect most the incoming projectiles, and got knocked off the ship by one of the cartons Chopper had been chucking at him.", Kanan sheepishly explained.

"We should've been more careful. Sorry, kid.",added Zeb.

"It's fine", replied Ezra, who was just happy to be alive and intact. It's the little things in life that matter.

With a sigh, Horatius pulled Kanan aside and told him off, "I get that training on top of a ship in mid-air is calm and quiet, and also comes with the added bonus of a cool factor, but basic safety comes first. In the future, when training, do so on the ground, won't you? That way, you can focus without worrying about the five hundred-feet drop below you. Understood?"

"Yes, master."

Horatius sensed some dissent brewing in Kanan."You find it difficult to train him, don't you?", he asked gently.

"It's just so challenging. Ezra can't focus. All the padawans in the Temple on Coruscant could. Why can't he?"

"Kanan, your expectations are unreasonable. Those younglings had been in training since the age of seven. Ezra's starting at fourteen. You must see things from his view, understand him and his fears, and guide him though his training."

"I understand, master."Hesitantly, he asked, "How am I as an apprentice?"

Kanan worked for two hours with Horatius on the seven Forms of wielding a lightsabre, followed by an hour of practicing using the Force. Every morning, from four to seven. Kanan had been obedient and gave his best in training.

"Better than I could have ever hoped for. I'm proud of you, Kanan."replied Horatius, with an encouraging smile.

Kanan brightened at Horatius' remark.

Hera called the two,"Come on you, Trayvis is making another transmission!"

They joined the crew as they sat down around the common room table and listened to the transmission that had broken in(in the middle of the daily stream of pro-imperial, anti-rebel propaganda). It was the anti-Empire speaker and a former Senator of the Imperial Senate, Gall Trayvis, making another one of his frequent broadcasts.

In this particular transmision, Trayvis talked about Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, and how she was imprisoned on the Spire, a detainment complex located on Stygeon Prime, in the Stygeon system.

"She'd be perfect for training Ezra! She could knock some discipline into him too! We've absolutely got to go get her!", cried out Kanan.

Ezra looked hurt and ashamed(for not being able to make his master proud of him) that his master didn't want to train him anymore.

"Kanan, you can't simply push your padawan, who by the way, trusts in you to guide him, onto someone else!", reproached Horatius. "All though, she would make a valuable and formidable addition to our lineup. Oh, and how'd you like it if I handed you off to Master Luminara to complete your training?"

It was Kanan's turn to look hurt and ashamed.

"That's what I thought."

"So what's the plan?", asked Zeb.

"Eh, we'll come up with something like we always do. Then that plan will get shot to hell, and we'll have to improvise. Just like every. Single. Time.", Horatius replied, as he walked off to his ship, to get ready to leave for Stygeon Prime.

"Hm. That'll work.", finished Zeb, shaking his head as he realized the validity of what had just been said.

 **Hyperspace**

"Spectre 7, it's you job to cause a distraction while the others infiltrates the spire and extract master Luminara.", Hera informed him via hologram.

"Gotcha, sunshine."

Hera's hologram fidgeted for a moment, indicating she was uncomfortable.

"Horatius, are you in love with me, or something? If so, then I should tell you, my heart already gone out to someone else."

Horatius shook his head.

"No, Hera. It's not the way you think it is. It's just that you resemble someone I loved a long time ago. So, every time I see you, I think that she's back, and I talk the way I used to talk to her, to you. I didn't realize that it made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry. I'll stop."

"I didn't realize that I reminded you of someone. It's fine, the way you talk. I kind of like it, to be honest. Makes me feel like I'm special.", she replied shyly.

"In that case, I'd better tell Kanan about how you like to be spoken to. And, Hera, you are special."

"That's sweet of you. Wait, what? You know about Kanan and me?"

Horatius snorted.

"Who doesn't? You two try so hard to hide it that you just end up making it more obvious. One minute you two are acting all serious and professional, and the next you're looking into each other's eyes sappily, or holding hands in the kitchen or kissing when you think nobody is around. Seriously, I've walked in on you two nine times already! Nine, I say! I mean, you do know that Chopper has a stash of recordings of you and Kanan together he's hoarding to blackmail you with one day?"

"I see."Hera was silent for a moment. She was speculating on how to destroy the astromech. It came down to slow disassembly while he was active, trash compactor, E.M.P. or Kanan's lightabre.

"Who was the girl unlucky enough to be stuck with you, Horatius? Where's she now? Did she run away, perhaps?", Sabine's voice teased over the comm, and the rest of the crew could be heard laughing throughout the ship. Apparently, Chop had sneakily put their conversation on speaker ship-wide. Hera made up her mind. Once she got hold of him, she was going to dismantle him bit by bit.

Horatius replied flatly,"her name was Resa, and she was killed off and robbed by a band of drunks. So, no, she did not run away. And when she was alive, she seemed pretty happy to be with me."

The comm went quiet.

Sabine tried to apologise. "Horatius, I'm sorry. About what I said. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine. I have to go now, gotta get ready to rumble with some bucketheads. I'll see you guys later.", Horatius cut her off. The _Breakthrough's_ bridge was quiet. The squad knew about Resa, and so did Huyang(the other droids had briefed him on Horatius and his eventful and painful past). He marched off to get his gear and armour, quickly wiping away the tears that had begun to form. Fourteen years had passed, but the memory of her and her death still hurt so badly. What wouldn't he give to be with her again. Shaking off the pain and the flood of memeories, he left for the airlock door connected to Hera's ship. He and Deadpan would be in the _Phantom_ with the others. His frigate would remain in orbit, ready to join the fray as reinforcements if needed. Chopper too was staying behind on the _Ghost_. Hera would first drop him off, and then the extraction team. Then she'd wait nearby to pick them up. As he sat down in one of the folding seats in the back of the shuttle, he sensed the others looking at him, Sabine the most. Deadpan sat by his side, brandishing a clone sergeant issue of the Z-6 Rotating Blaster. Sabine seemed to be trying to muster the courage for a proper apology. As she was about to open her mouth, he held up his hand, and said, looking right at her,"It's fine. You made a mistake. Focus on the mission."

Sabine closed her mouth, and slumped in he seat, looking ashamed.

"Right then, we'll be over the Spire in a few minutes. Horatius, Deadpan, get ready to jump."

"Time to lock aaaand load!", yelled Deadpan enthusiastically(his demeanour was, at any rate), albeit in his usual drone, which couldn't be changed at all(a side effect of his reprogramming).

"Let's go show them how real troopers roll.", he affirmed.

The door opened, and the duo jumped out. They landed in moments, Horatius cushioning the fall with the Force. He saw the shuttle disappear around one of the towers. The Ohsarlan and the droid pressed on towards a maintenance hatch. The stormtroopers patrolling the area were dispatched via Horatius' bo-rifle in sniper mode. Deadpan stepped forward, the heavy discharger slung over his metal back. His hand turned into a small plug, like the one found on astromechs. With a few turns and whirs, he got the door open, and together, the rebels stepped into the Spire.

Deadpan got his blaster ready. Horatius caught a mouse droid and loaded it up with two high potency demolition charges. He programmed the mouse droid to station itself among the main support beams that held up the Spire. Next on the to-do list, attract all the attention to himself and Deadpan.

This, he reflected with a grin, was something he could do. He pulled out his bo-rifle and set it up in assault rifle mode.

"Time to wreak some havoc. COME AT ME, IMPERIAL KLUTZES!", he yelled into an intercom, blaring his message across the complex. A klaxon began to wail. The rushing footsteps of a hoard of stormtroopers got closer. The duo went to work.

Horatius took the left hallway, and Deadpan took the right. They would converge at the cell block where the others were headed.

As he sliced through two squads' worth of stormtroopers with his bo-rifle (now in electrostaff mode, powered up to a jacked-up 20000 volts), Horatius wondered how the others were doing. He knew the other Spectres' plan was an effective one, but you never knew what might go wrong. Much to his own surprise, his thoughts wandered to Ahsoka Tano, a.k.a Fulcrum. What was she upto? Did she do this kind of stuff for a living too? Quickly, he shook of his thoughts as a brood of imperial security droids and sentry droids appeared, wielding Z-4 riot control batons, tweaked for lethal voltage, just like his bo-rifle. With his free hand, he took out one of his pistols and shot out the cameras in the vicinity. He holstered the pistol and his bo-rifle. He would get overhelmed as he wasn't too comfortable with the bo-rifle(it wasn't balanced for humans to use). From his hidden chestplate compartment, he removed a lightsabre. He pressed a button, and the extra-long sabre handle broke into two normal-sized sabre handles. He preferred fighting with one sabre, but he was on a time limit. The quickest way to deal with these droids was to go two-hand. He ignited his sabre, and greeted them as they came close."Hello, imperial droids. Today is the day you go back to being inanimate scrap once more! Whooo!."

Horatius leapt into the fray, his sabres slashing and twirling in a flurry of white and grey, untill only he remained, surrounded by scrap. He collected seven of the batons. Gold would appreciate some new stuff to modify, and Huyang (who'd appointed himself as the Quartermaster and Weapons' Refurbisher. In other news, a power struggle between him and Gold was underway for the CIC control station on the frigate's bridge's CO position) would be happy with the new additions to the armoury.

The static that had been buzzing from his commlink. A deadish, drawling voice was on the line.

"The jammer is now offline and the cameras have been shut down. I've placed the imperial comms jammer as well. Now proceeding to the cell, Renegade Leader."

"Affirmative. Keep up the good work, Renegade Six. I'll see you at the block."

Finally, Horatius could let it rip on this base. He pressed on to the central data archive, getting rid of the eight squads between him and the archive. One trooper desperately tried to lob him with grenades, hoping the explosion would take him down. Horatius simply used the force to gather up the grenades and place all the bodies and wreckage left about post-his-arrival and piled it up on the four grenades. He used the force to keep his makeshift dome in place. It held, and the grenade threat was thus neutralised.

"Why won't you die?", cried out the trooper in anguish, knowing his end was at hand.

As he was about to strike down the trooper, Horatius said,"because I refuse to."

"That doesn't even make sense!", shouted the trooper.

"Fine. I don't die because I don't feel like it. Now die."

Before the stormtrooper could give him feedback on his new reply, he struck down the trooper, who had been about to subject him to some sarcastic, slow-clapping.

He entered the archive, and copied everything on there:shipping routes, operations and projects, passcode, security procedures and whatnot. It took multiple drives to get everything. In five minutes, the transfer was done. He grabbed the drives, and ran off towards the cell block where master Luminara was being held.

Ten minutes and several small skirmishes later, Horatius arrived at the cell block, only to see Kanan fighting a black-clad figure wielding a red lightsabre. A Sith? No, the waves of darkness were not all that overwhelming. This person was not a Sith, he was just... _cold_. As he watched, in growing dismay, the fight progress, he saw that Kanan was outmatched. His defense-oriented Form III moves were struggling against the black-clad figure's From II and Form VI hybrid fighting style. Ezra came forward with his slingshot to help, but both master and padawan were thrown against a wall.

"Are all rebels this pathetic?",taunted the figure.

"Don't count on it.", called Horatius, and ignited his lightsabre, now in single blade configuration.

The figure turned around with his eyebrows raised at the new challenger, and was revealed to be a Pau'an.

Horatius realized with a jolt that the Pau'an he was facing was the same one who had taught him the ways of Form VI. It seemed that he had fallen to the dark side. Horatius was sad at this new piece of information. The Pau'an had been a good person and a formidable battler. The Pau'an didn't recognize him, it seemed.

"Who are you supposed to be?", the Pau'an asked.

"Trouble. With a capital T." After a pause for dramatic effect, he added,"I'm guessing you were trying to go for a scrawny, chic Darth Vader look, but the helmet he wears was out of stock, so you decided to go helmetless?"

"I'm the Grand Inquisitor, puny clone! A Jedi-killer!", the not-all-that-grand-looking Inquistor snarled.

"Good thing I'm not a Jedi, then."

"So you're just a dunce prancing around with a lightsabre?"

"That's your life story, not mine. No, I'm an Ohsarlan! One who walks in between the two extrems of the Force:the light and the dark. I'm in the middle. The eye of the storm."

Real smooth, Horatius, keep those lines coming, Horatius congratulated himself.

With a feral growl, the Pau'an leapt at him.

Horatius calmly sidestepped and stepped forward to meet his opponent's sabre. The two lightsabres swished and flashed , and the air, charged up from all the rapid lightsabres parries and thrusts, began to smell burnt.

"What form of fighting is this?", growled the Inquisitor in frustration, unable to strike his foe.

"All of them.", Horatius replied.

It was true. Horatius had taken the best from each of the various fighting styles seen and practiced in the galaxy:from the Forms of lightsabre battle to staff-fighting of Lasan to Mandalore's melee combat dialect, and more. The result: he was an unpredictable opponent capable of adapting to counter different threats. Ten years was a lot of training time. Seeing an opening, Horatius pushed his nemesis back with the Force, and ran off with Kanan, Ezra and Deadpan(who had just arrived, his being the longer route to the cell block) in tow. Horatius had seen Ezra place his thermal detonator near the cell. As the Pau'an pursued, he was thrown back once more by the detonator's explosion. On the way to the exit they had picked to leave through, Kanan filled Horatius in. The whole thing was a trap to lure surviving Jedi to their deaths using Luminara's corpse's force signature as a beacon for the Jedi. Swiftly, they regrouped with Zeb and Sabine. Their way was blocked by a blast door.

"Kanan, Ezra. You need to use the Force together to open the door. Why you? Because I won't. This is a crucial moment in your training; trust each other, you must. Droid access terminals have been booby-trapped, I sense. You must acknowledge each other as Padawan and Master. Work together. Or we all die."

Wait a minute, had he just said all this, Yoda-sytle? Horatius wondered.

"Horatius, your timing sucks, you know that?", shot Sabine.

"I know for a fact that your bombs suck. I'd rather face the bucketheads with water balloons."

Sabine, scandalized at her bombs' craftmanship being questioned and ridiculed, was speechless.

Zeb couldn't help but chuckle. Not many could disarm Sabine:verbally or physically. Horatius seemed to be capable of both.

Ezra and Kanan looked at each other.

"Kanan, I'm sorry if I'm not the student you want me to be.", began Ezra.

"You shouldn't be. It was wrong of me to expect so much from you without proper training. I'm sorry. I just wanted for you to have the best training I could get you. I'm no Luminara, but I'll do my best to teach you what I know.", Kanan replied.

"I never wanted to learn from Luminara; I want you to teach me."

Kanan's eyes turned misty.

"I get that now.", he managed.

The two nodded. They stood in front of the door, and opened it. Horatius was so proud of them he felt like crying, only he was too tired. Hera had landed outside, and was using some of the local wildlife as a diversion. The _Phantom_ 's jammer frequency seemed to have affected the creatures to follow the shuttle wherever it went.

As they ran out to the shuttle, Horatius threw the detonator for the bombs on the mouse droid to Sabine, and called,"I like to go out with a bang. What about you?"

Sabine flashed him a grin, and said, "Welcome to the club."

She pressed the trigger, and an explosion could be heard down below. It would take a while for the complex to collapse, but it would still leave it irreparably devastated.

Quickly, the team boarded, and Hera blasted off into space once more. It was not untill the freighter and the frigate were in hyperspace with them on board, that the Spectres began to breathe easier.

 **Brigand's Landing**

Four days later, things were back to normal, or about as normal as they could get for the Spectres. Kanan and Ezra had reconciled with each other. Ezra's training was in full swing. Kanan and Horatius still trained every morning. When the power struggle between Huyang and Gold had escalated to breaking point, Horatius had intervened. The two droids would hold the CO position on an alternating basis. They had made up quickly made up, and were now bonding over the riot batons Horatius had bought from Stygeon Prime. They were in the workshop, modifying it and loading it with every feature they could dream of. Magneta and Zeb were off on a supply run. Fives was doing an inventory on supplies. Cyclops was fixing up the _Phantom_ for Hera, in return for her letting him spending some 'alone time' with the _Ghost_ 's engines. Hera had shuddered at the way Cyclops had framed his offer, but had ultimately agreed. Sabine was in her cabin, painting or doing whatever she did in her spare time.

Ezra and Kanan were looking through Kanan's holocron in his cabin. Hera was in the cockpit, talking to a contact of hers. For the third time that day, Horatius wondered what Ahsoka was upto. He couldn't shake of the feeling that something to do with her was about to come up.

Someone tapped his shoulder plate.

Horatius spun around, pistols cocked at the source of the tap that had startled him, only to find Hera standing there, alarmed at his reaction, hands held up.

"Woah, woah, woah! Peace, Horatius!"

"Sorry about that. Old habits die hard."He holstered his pistols. He stood up, standing a head taller than the twi'lek. She had an eerie resemblance to Resa. Hera gave him a 'it's all right; No worries' smile made his go fuzzy. That smile was incredibly similar to Resa's too..

He reminded himself this was Hera Syndulla, not Resa.

Hera seemed to sense the turmoil, and asked,

"Everything fine?"

"What're you talking about? I'm rearing to go! What do you want me to do?"

With a small smile, she replied.

"Fulcrum contacted me. The decryption of the data you two nabbed is done. She's waiting to hand the drives over at an old republic listening outpost. On the moon of Rishi. After the old one was destroyed in a skirmish involving commando droids trying to take control, a new one was built. It was abandoned during the war, when the eel problem got out of hand."

Horatius was tempted to do a little jig, but hastily covered up his newfound happiness(why was he feeling so happy right now?). In the coolest of tones, he replied.

"Okay?"

"Fulcrum's asked for you. Says you're excellent company to have around. A real charmer, aren't you?"

Horatius spirits rose further at that snippet of information than any hyperspace jump could take you.

With an infuriating smile, he replied sweetly,"What can I say?I'm an aquired taste."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy."

"When do I leave?"

"Ten minutes ago."

With an inquisitive smile, she added, "I'd like to see just how you managed to win over Fulcrum, of all people."

"You might, someday, Hera. Why isn't anyone else coming?"

"Fulcrum gave us info on a Kyber shipment. We need specifics, so we're going to steal Agent Kallus' decoder, by planting Ezra as a cadet in an imperial facility. We'll be dealing with that, while you go pick up the drives and supplies."

Twenty minutes and several attempts by Kanan and Ezra to tag along later, the _Breakthrough_ took off for Rishi. Fulcrum had said she'd need help moving some supplies and tidbits she had found while checking out the base, so he decided to land the frigate in the base's hangar, to make loading way easier. D Squad were excited too, finally getting off the sidelines.

"Time to rock and roll, Renegades. Status?"

Magneta:"Comms and Scopes, ready."

Cyclops:"Obi-Wan is ready to roll."

Fives:"Shields and ship condition optimal."

Huyang:"CIC, locked and loaded."(Huyang was in charge today, sitting on the CIC CO's seat, while Gold was plugged in nearby.)

Deadpan:"Hangar Control Tower, looking shiny."

"Then, let's do this. Cyclops, let it rip. Magneta, hit the net.", ordered

Horatius.

"Now letting it rip.", confirmed Cyclops as he pushed the throttle to 'MAX SL', and then threw the lever reading 'HYPERJUMP'.

Magneta scoured the Holonet for good music; finding a good station, she played it ship-wide.

"Nice pick, Magneta."

"Isn't it always?", quipped Magneta.

With that, the _Breakthrough_ jumped.

"Show off.", muttered Hera, as she saw the flash the frigate made as they jumped.

"Wonder when he'll be back.", thought out loud Ezra.

"He'll be back in a few days; I gave him a list of errands to run as well."

"I'll be practicing on my own.", Kanan realized gloomily.

"Is alone so bad?", Hera gave him a look with a smile that instantly perked him up. Priceless.

"Maybe not."

"We have a job to run as well, so get ready. Sabine, get Ezra ready for the role of an imperial Cadet."

"On it, Hera.",replied Sabine, and whisked him away.

"The rest of you, with me. We'll go over the plan."

Zeb and Kanan nodded.

With a sad Chopper(he missed Horatius and was heartbroken at being left behind with the other Spectres) in tow, they left for the common room.

 **Rishi Outpost**

As soon as they jumped out of hyperspae and were about to make their lading approach, Horatius suddenly perked up and said,"Stop the ship and set it up in orbit around Rishi. Deadpan, Huyang with me. Deadpan, get the _Intrigue_ ready."

The droids began to protest, and Cyclops was leading the chant "adventure for the droids!", when Horatius gave them his 'I have a blaster and am beginning to warm up to to the idea of shooting you' look he gave when he needed silence.

"I feel a disturbance in the force. There is trouble waiting for us down there. Magneta, scan that outpost."

A few minutes later, Magneta chirped, "One life form, unmoving. There are a few ships in the hanger, but only one, a Hammerhead Corvette, has it's engines still warm from use. There is movement in the base, though. Inorganics, non-imperial."

"Wait for my orders. Stay in orbit. Full alert. Cyclops, take the con."

"Aye, captain.", Cyclops replied tersely.

As he made his way to the hangar, Horatius went over what he knew. The Hammerhead was probably the _Crusader_ , Ahsoka's ship. That organic signature was hers. She was alive, but incapacitated, it seemed. There were droids loose in the outpost.

They might be her captors. Horatius felt the a disturbance in the Force, one that made his spine tingle. Not a good sign. In his experience, spine-tingling meant some gamechanging stuff was about to go down. Grimly, he grabbed his helmet from the crate he had left it on and boarded the repainted imperial shuttle.

The _Intrigue_ landed with a small thud, and the ramp literally _fell_ out, and the ship began to hiss. Engine one had stopped working during descent. If not for Deadpan's piloting, they wouldn't have made it to the base. The shuttle was old, from the days of the Republic's fall and the first days of the Empire.

The previous users had not taken good care of the ship. Without proper care, any ship was bound to fall into disrepair. One of the left landing struts gave out. The shuttle was now standing at an angle, rocking dangerously. Deadpan, Huyang and Horatius disembarked quickly, wondering if the ship would be able to get them back to the frigate. As if in answer, the right folding wing fell out of closed configuration, and the central wing that did not move at all, simply detached from the ship and fell on the floor. The shock of the wing falling off caused the cockpit's glass to shatter. From within the ship, the sound of things giving away could be heard. In under a minute, it had gone from being somewhat usable to incapable of being sold to even the most desperate of jawas.

"Well, it's settled. We need a new ride.", sighed Horatius.

Huyang(who was armed with a DC-15 rifle and one of the riot batons Horatius had salvaged on Stygeon Prime) and Deadpan(armed with his Z-6 Rotator and a Magnaguard electrostaff) muttered in agreement.

"All right, I'll go find Fulcrum, while you two find us another ride. If you find nothing we can use, then call the ship and tell Fives to extract us with the _Blade Runner_.", Horatius issued his orders.

The droids nodded an affirmative, and went off deeper into the hangar, in search of some craft they could use. Horatius went off in the direction of the base's main building, looking for Fulcrum, using the Force to lock onto the togruta's signature.

As Huyang and Deadpan searched for a spaceworthy ship, they came across the _Crusader_ , or what was left of it, at any rate. It was not a pretty sight. The sublight engines in the back had been torn apart by what Huyang could only assume to be thermal detonator blast impacts. In multiple places, there were holes in the Hammerhead's plating. Smoke was still coming out of the trashed reactor. There were cracks on the window pane for the bridge. The turrets had been blasted off as well, and the cargo ramp had been cut out.

"They waited till Fulcrum had landed, and then peppered the ship with detonators and anti-ship cannons, to ground the Hammerhead and prevent escape. They then opened up the cargo hold door with laser cutters, and then proceeded to take Fulcrum captive.", Deadpan guessed.

"That is the most likely answer. We should take a look at the flight recorder and the captain's log, to get an idea of what we're against."

"Affirmative, Renegade seven. Let's move."

With that, the two droids boarded the wrecked Hammerhead.

Horatius went from room to room, with his trusty bo-rifle(close-quarter heavy rifle mode) at the ready, and lightsabre now on his belt, ready for use. He was worried for Ahsoka. It had been droids who had been the only ones on the base apart from her, so it was likely they had her. He did not sense any electricals or movement nearby, but nevertheless proceeded with caution. Finally, he reached one of the locker rooms. The door had been blasted off it's sliding track slot. Carefully, he went in. He could feel Ahsoka's presence. It concerned him that her signature was weak, and her main emotions were extreme pain and fear. That was unlike Ahsoka, from the little he knew about her.

One of the showers was still running, and the sound of strangled sobs could be heard coming from the stall. Horatius collapsed his bo-rifle and hooked it back onto my belt. He ignited his lightsabre, and slowly made his way to the stall, on guard.

"There's nothing on the bridge. They blasted apart the recorder. You find anything in the captain's quarters?", Deadpan called down from the bridge.

"I'm looking through the quarters now. Wait, what's this? Oh my. Renegade seven, get over here, now!", Huyang shouted back.

Deadpan hurried down to where Huyang stood, holding something in his hands.

"By Kenobi's beard! Is that..", Deadpan trailed off, shocked.

Huyang pressed a button in answer, and the cabin suddenly lit up, from the light of what was in Huyang's hands.

In his hands, were two silver lightsabres, their blades glowing silver-grey.

Horatius' commlink buzzed to life and a lifeless drone could be heard.

"Renegade Leader, come in. This is Renegade Six."

Horatius was about to open the stall door.

"This is Renegade Leader. What's the matter, Renegade Six?"

"We checked out the Hammerhead. It's Fulcrum's, all right. And you won't believe what we found in there."

"What?"

"Lightsabres! Two of them, and they glow greyish white just like yours! 'AT' Was scrawled on them."

"They belong to Fulcrum. She's a Force-user!", breathed Horatius.

"Yup. We're going to check out the captain's logs. See if we can get an idea of the attackers."

"Do it. And once you're done, scan the area, and give me data on where the clankers are."

"Gotcha. Over and out."

The commlink shut off.

Inhaling deeply, Horatius stepped forward, and knew who was on the other side of the door. He opened the door, and what he saw, it horrified him.

There sat Ahsoka Tano, on a seat from a V19 starfighter. She'd been strapped in and was cuffed. A power cord was connected to the seat. A sack was over head. There was a burning smell in the air. She was sobbing softly. He stepped forward and gently took the sack off, and cut off the cuffs that bound her. Her face had marks from an electrowhip, and she'd been hit on the face pretty badly as well. Her eyes were blank, and her was face contorted in pain from all her injuries.

He rushed forward and cupped her face in his hands, putting his head against hers. She flinched at the contact.

"Ahsoka, it's me! Horatius. From Jedha."

"H-Horatius Payne?"

"That's me, the one and only. Here to rescue you."

"Horatius, it was terrible! They wanted to know if someone else was coming here too! They tortured me! I, I told them you were coming. I told them when and where too. I'm sorry! They're probably on their way here right now. You must leave!", she rambled.

"Shh, shh. It's fine. I know how bad it hurts, believe me, I do. There's nothing to be sorry about. I'm going to get us out of this, somehow. I promise."

"Everything hurts...", Ahsoka groaned. She was deathly pale.

Horatius knew what he had to do, and made up his mind. He put his hands to her head, on her lekku, and closed his eyes.

After a while, Ahsoka's sobs subsided. Her eyes cleared. The cuts faded a little, and the marks disappeared. She felt much better, and the pain was mostly gone. She felt Horatius' hands on her lekku. Her mind clear, she opened her eyes, only to find _his_ facecontorted in pain.

"Horatius, what's the matter? Tell me! What did you do to me? To yourself?"

Groaning, he replied,"I can use the Force, like you can. I have a rare ability. Master Yoda said it was called 'Mitigation'. It does what the name implies: let's me take away all of someone's injuries and pain. The catch:I have to feel all the pain and injuries that has been inflicted on them that lead to the injuries. That's what I did."

"All that, for me?"

"Anything for a friend."

Ahsoka was silent. She had figured out that Horatius could use the Force on Jedha itself, but out of respect for him, had decided to not tell anyone about it untill he decided to tell them.

She was surprised at the clone's connection to the force, as well as the strength oh his connection. He was special, that much was certain. She couldn't believe he had come to save her, and had even decided to take her pain upon himself. It was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for her. She gave him a grateful hug. He received it weakly. They stayed there like that, relieved to have each other's company, untill Huyang's voice cackled over Horatius' commlink. They broke apart quickly. Horatius was still hurting really bad, but managed to reply.

"What is it, Renegade Seven?", Horatius spoke into the commlink in a weak voice.

"We went through the logs, and the ship's footage showed some droidekas, B2 Battle droids and a platoon's worth of B1s. They were lead by a Super Tactical Droid. Also, scans show that the droids are in the command centre right now. A single lone droid signature is at the other end of the base, in Engineering. We're going to resume searching for a ship to get us out of here. We can't contact Fives for help as there is a jammer that is active and disabling all outgoing messages."

"Affirmative, Renegade Seven. And thanks. I've got Fulcrum with me, and am now headed to the command centre. Time for some payback."

"Roger that, boss. Good hunting."

Turning to Ahsoka with a grimace that was supposed to be a smile(it took a while for Mitigation's side effects to cease) and said,"You tagging along or what?"

"Of course I am. Who else is gonna have your back?", she replied with a concerned smile, and took his arm, making him lean on her for support.

Together, they went off towards the command centre.

"Score!", yelled Deadpan as Huyang and he came upon a small collection of ships, all of them Republic units.

The lineup consisted of two LAAT/c's(Low Altitude Assault Transporter/carrier), and one Nu-class Republic Shuttle(the ' _Oddball_ '). They were all in more or less prime condition, as they were brand new when they had been brought to the base.

"This'll do.", affirmed Huyang, and buzzed Horatius, while Deadpan began to fill up the ships' fuel reserves.

The dynamic duo burst into the command centre with Ahsoka wielding Horatius' combat pistols, while he brandished his lightsabre. There was only seven droids active: two B2s, four B1s and the leading Super Tactical Droid. The leader was painted white and grey, just like Horatius. The droids pointed blasters at the two, who stood ready to dodge.

"Hello, Republic scum. I am TX/AARC-002, callsign: Mindflayer."

Horatius' eyes went wide."I know you."

"And I know you, ARC-0002. Known in the Clone Wars as Havoc. You had a reputation, one for which they created me, the anti-Havoc. I heard my sniper failed to kill General Plo Koon, but took you out in the process. Not a bad trade. You stole a lightsabre to what, commiserate your dead general? I heard he was shot down over Cato Neimodia."

"Koh-to-yah, Separatist junkpile. If you remember who I am, then you probably know what I'm known for:the element of surprise."

"I'm waiting.", the Mindflayer responded sarcastically.

Horatius called upon the Force, and with Ahsoka's adding to his strength, he lifted all the droids, both activated and inactive. He knocked the blasters out of their hands. Only the Mindflayer was left standing, staring at his floating comrades.

"Ta-da."

"What do you want, Havoc?"

"Tell me your backstory."

"There isn't much to tell."

"Spill."

"Make me."

"Listen, clanker. If they built you to deal with me, then they would have made you like me, in the hopes that you would predict my moves. And if you're me, then you have the same weakness as me: loyalty to your loved ones. You care for the droids you share this base with. You consider them your family. You'd do anything for them. Start talking, or every B1 here gets pulled apart, painfully."

"All right! All right! I'll tell you my story. Just don't hurt them."

"I'm waiting."

"Here goes: I was assembled on Genosis, and programmed on Christophsis. Your abilities and the threat you posed had become serious. At last count, your kill count was over 500,000! Count Dooku commissioned a team to come up with anti-ARC droids. Each of us was built to be the bane of a specific ARC trooper. You were my mark. For the rest of the war, I trailed the Wolfpack, acting from behind the scenes. You managed to thwart me most times. Untill that day on Cato Neimodia. I thought I had completed my mission. I was then dispatched to other parts, heading to the most difficult of campaigns, like you had for your Republic. Then, I began to see the signs of the war's end nearing, and the Separatists' downfall. I realized that the droid army would probably be deactivated and stored and forgotten by time, when the war ended. I whisked away my platoon days before the shutdown signal was sent out. By then, I had altered my platoon's transponders to reject the shutdown signal. It worked. We looked for a place to hide from the imperials, and came across the Rishi Moon outpost, abandoned and forgotten. We have been camped out here since then. Then everything changed. This Fulcrum showed up, and seeing her loading some of our supplies on to her ship, we intercepted her. I thought she was a pirate scout, so I interrogated her. We were interrupted by the arrival of another ship, shortly followed by another. The second one was imperial. Realizing how imperials being alerted to our presence could go sideways for us, I deactivated most of my platoon so as to not register on scanners. You did, though."

"Yeah, our Comms Officer takes pride in her work."

It made sense. The droids had panicked and assumed their sanctuary was threatened. They had captured Ahsoka to find out if more of her were on the way, when the Renegades had arrived. Assuming they were imperials, because of their shuttle, the Mindflayer had tried to hide his people. Horatius understood how he felt, and sympathized with him.

"Mindflayer, what was the signature that came before I arrived?"

"It was a single ship. Called the _Decimator_. Cameras showed us that the pilot was an IG-88 Droid. The droid headed instantly for the base's engineering area. Probably trying to restore power to this place."

"I see. You must leave this place. This droid is a bounty hunter for sure, I can tell. The _Decimator_ belongs to a particular IG-88, who works for the Hutts and is one of the most feared and efficient hunters in the galaxy. If he was to find out we were here, he would probably try to collect the bounty on our heads. As for why he's here, that's relatively easier. Every hunter needs a base of operations; a Fortress of Solitude. IG-88 most likely was passing through when he saw this moon and the old base here, and thought it would be a suitable place to set up shop. The eels infesting this moon can be put off with modified sensor beacons and provide natural security. Ingenious, really."

"Why not just end this IG-88?"

"Because he works for the Hutts, and when one fo their best hunters disappears here, they are bound to show up with reinforcements. They'll find you and turn you back into scrap."

"Your logic is undeniable. We must leave. Now to deal with the conundrum of where to set up a new camp.", the Mindflayer replied despondently.

"Simple fix: join the crew of my frigate, the _Breakthr_ _o_ _ugh_. You are a formidable warrior, a natural leader, resourceful, and you care for your people. These are some of the makings of a rebel."

Horatius had decided to offer him and his droids a home on his ship. He had come to respect these droids.

"Horatius, no! They tortured me, remember?"

"I know, Ahsoka. But try to understand their situation. He just wanted to make sure his people were safe. You would have done the same."

She was silent, contemplating on what he had said.

"You're right. These droids need a home, and they could have one with you. Plus, we need all the help we can get."

"I do not see the logic in fighting with the Empire; we are outnumbered and outgunned. What do we have over them?", piped up the Mindflayer.

"We've got each other, and we've got hope. That's all we need, really. As for why, the Empire replaced the republic and destroyed the Confederacy. They are our common enemy. Together, we can work towards bringing about their downfall. The real selling point, however, is that you face a challenge. I know you, and the past decade and a half, the worst thing about you going into hiding was the lack of adventure, excitement. You desperately crave some, don't you? Well, here we are, offering you the adventure of a lifetime.So, what do you say?"

A pause.

"I say this:you have yourself a deal. My only condition is that we are treated fairly and not judged for our part in the Clone Wars."

"Let the past die. All is forgiven. Welcome to the team."

"Blaze Company, reporting for duty."

Horatius turned to Ahsoka, and they shared a smile. He could sense she wasn't completely on board with Blaze Company joining the rebels; she was still sour over the interrogation. Who wouldn't be?

The Mindflayer seemed to realize this as well, and apologised to her formally,"Fulcrum, I and my troops are extremely sorry for the way we treated and questioned you. My methods were unreasonably extreme. I know you may not forget, but can you find it in your heart to forgive?"

Ahsoka was silent. Then she spoke,"I accept your apology. Do not ever do what you did to me to another person. It was inhuman, and nobody should have to suffer through that."

"Agreed."

Horatius spoke up,"Give me a sitrep."

The Tactical droid perked up and replied,"the IG-88 droid is still in engineering, trying to restore power to the complex. What he doesn't seem to realize is that we rigged that place with liquid tibanna and thermal detonators. I recommend leaving quickly and demolishing this complex. Given the vintage of this outpost, a collapse would not be surprising, and IG-88's demise won't be looked at too closely."

"Brilliant plan. We're doing it. Proceed to the hangar."

Using the force, Horatius took one half of the inactive droids, while Ahsoka took the other half, to the hangar, where Deadpan and Huyang were waiting with their quarry. They loaded the droids onto the _Oddball_. Huyang and Ahsoka would pilot the shuttle, while the Mindflayer and Deadpan would pilot the two LAAT/c's. The loading was done in ten minutes(Horatius sat among the droids-all of them deactivated and in folded mode for efficient storage), and they took off in another two. Once they were clear, the Mindflayer pressed the trigger for the rigged explosives. The relic of the Republic was blown to smithereens, and collapsed once more into rubble, like the original outpost had, hopefully taking IG-88 with it.

There was a lot of clamour when the ships landed in the _Breakthrough_ 's hangar. Quickly, Horatius filled D Squad in on what had unfolded on the moon and how Blaze Company was joining their ranks.

"Thank goodness for that, the frigate has been incredibly understaffed for so long. We can finally operate at peak efficiency!", celebrated Fives.

"Blaze Company lived on the Separatist frigate _Disharmony_. My men are trained to run a ship as well.", replied the Mindflayer. Without further delay, he began to divide his men into various teams to make up the running crew for the frigate: everything from maintenance to hangar control to CIC to sanitation.

"Thanks. Nice team you've got there.", Horatius complimented, impressed.

"Thank you. We are very close, as we spent fourteen years in that abandoned outpost. We shall make sure this ship runs optimally for our needs. I have assigned my troops to report to D Squad and the two other droids on your team as the heads f their various departments. We will not fail you, _commander Havoc._ "

Horatius flinched at being addressed by his old nickname from the Clone Wars.

"I'm not Havoc anymore. The past is behind us. I go by Horatius Payne now. Speaking of which, you too need a new name."

"I see. Pick me a name, I was never good at names, my current one being bestowed upon me by my programming team."

"All right, then. Arise, Renegade Eight. You are no more the Mindflayer. Henceforth, you shall be known as Grey."

"What are my orders?"

"Report to the bridge, and oversee our journey to Coruscant. I need to pick some stuff up there. After that, we'll head back to Lothal and meet up with the Spectres. I'll introduce you to the family. You're a rebel now. Once we reach Coruscant, you and your men will report to Magneta, who will initiate you. It's something we do to make you our family officially."

"Understood."

With a small salute, the renamed Grey left for the bridge. Horatius talked to the other Renegades for a bit, answering their questions and quenching their doubts. It took about twenty minutes to sort out all the details. The droids left, to attend to their duties. The arrival of Blaze Company had livened up the ship. It didn't feel as desolate anymore. The hustle of droids as they went about their newfound work(the inactive droids had been recharged as well and joined in the effort) comforted Horatius. He would never be alone again.

He turned to see where Ahsoka was(he was surprised that she had not spoken at all since they had landed), only to see her slumped in the _Oddball_ 's cockpit, fast asleep. The entire Rishi affair must have tired her out pretty bad. Smiling, he went over to her, brought her down from her chair, and with the force, carried her to the captain's cabin(he didn't use it, preferring to sleep in that corridor of his), and set her down on the newly made bed(courtesy of the newly formed sanitation unit). He made his way to the door, stopped, turned back and planted a kiss on her forehead, and bid her good night softly. He left for his corridor(adjacent to the captain's cabin) for some well-earned rest. He didn't see Ahsoka open her eyes and grin as he left.

 **Brigand's Landing, ten days later.**

The _Breakthrough_ landed gently on the field. The Spectres hadn't returned yet. They were scheduled to arrive the next day. The cargo ramp descended, and twelve droidekas rolled out and spread out around the field, patrolling the area. Two B2 Super Battle Droids climbed atop the frigate with a long-range scanner, acting as sentries. Grey had quickly and efficiently secured the area. His troops were happy to be on duty again, after idling about and then shutting down, followed by sitting around inactive, for so long. Grey had proved himself to be loyal, reliable and efficient for so long. D Squad was happy as well. With all the droids reporting to them, their workload had become much lighter. The frigate was running more smoothly as well now that it was well-staffed. All was well.

Horatius stepped out with Grey by his side. Grey now two combat pistols like Horatius' slung by his side, and an imperial riot baton slung over his back(courtesy of Huyang). He, like the rest of his droids had his back painted with the Loth-wolf insignia(Magneta had initiated Blaze Company). Grey had stepped up become Horatius' left hand man.

"The area is secure, boss.", droned Grey.

"Thanks, Grey. Oversee the unloading of the supplies, won't you.", replied Horatius.

"Affirmative."

Grey left. Horatius called up Hera on his commlink and explained what had happened. She too filled him in on what the Spectres had been upto: they had successfully destroyed the Kyber shipment and picked up Ezra and another defecting cadet(the other cadet had been safely sent into hiding). They were coming early, as they had had to bail out early, otherwise Kallus and the Inquisitor would have captured them.

"We'll reach in about half an hour. See you then.", Hera said over the commlink.

"Take care, and tell Kanan and the others to not flip out when they see the droids."

"I'll tell him. Bye."

The commlink waited.

Horatius went into the field, and started practicing with his lightsabre, revising the Forms he had been taught..

Half an hour later, the sound of a ship landing, followed by a yell was heard. "Die, Separatist junk!"

Horatius sighed. "Damn it, Kanan. Not again."

He stopped his training and went over to where the _Ghost_ had landed. Kanan was about to strike down a B1 named OOM9(reactivated and recruited after the battle of Naboo), who was Grey's right-hand man. Using the Force, he stopped Kanan's sabre from reaching the droid.

"Kanan, they are on our side now."

"Master, they killed-"

"I know what they did. Remember this:they were simply doing their job, just as me and my brothers were doing ours. They are under my protection, and are not to be harmed, do you understand?"

"Yes, master.", came the strained reply.

"Kanan, I understand your concerns. All of these droids' memory banks were wiped, except for Grey's. And I trust Grey as much as any one of you. He has proven himself to be invaluable."

"I see."

Introductions were made. Hera, Sabine and Zeb were more welcoming to the battle droids. Horatius took Hera aside and took her to the captain's cabin aboard his frigate. In there, sleeping peacefully, was Ahsoka Tano. Horatius' Mitigation had not completely healed her, and she was still hurt. Horatius and Fives had been taking care of her. Horatius filled Hera in, and they agreed to keep her secret from the rest of the crew, to protect them if they got captured. The fewer people knew about her, the better. Horatius agreed to call Hera when Tano was awake, so that they could talk.

As she was about to leave, she noticed the way Hotatius was looking at Ahsoka. She smiled at the clone's concern for Ahsoka's well being, and wondered what was going on between them. She decided to ask that later, as now didn't seem to be the best of times; everyone was tired from their respective assignments. She left for the _Ghost_ , it was time to make some lunch. Kanan would probably help her, he loved spending time with her, and she loved to have him with her. Horatius stayed by the sleeping togruta's side, with the trusty Grey standing guard with two droidekas at the door(he looked out for his family, just like his captain). She knew Horatius would stay there, untill Ahsoka awoke.

 **That's it for chapter five, folks! I'll post another chapter soon enough. There is so much to write, and I love every minute of writing this fic! I hope you're enjoying it as much as I enjoy writing it.**

 **I wonder if any of you have caught on to some of the movies' and books' references I have hidden throughout my fic? If you do, good on you!**

 **Demolitioneer out.**


	7. Chapter 6

**And we're back once again, for another episode of _Reaching Out_! Let's go!**

 **CHAPTER 7:** **Don't Feed the Fyrnocks**

 **The _Breakthrough_ , in orbit over Lothal**

"Leaving already?", Horatius asked, as Ahsoka walked into the hangar with two bags over her shoulder. One of his V19 Starfighters had been prepped for her to take off for wherever she was headed for now.

"I'm more or less healed, and I'd rather be out there doing something than lying around idle here. Not that I don't like it here; You've been excellent hosts.", replied Ahsoka.

Horatius and Fives had been taking care of her for a week now. Horatius stayed by her side almost all the time, letting Grey and Cyclops run the ship. Hera visited now and then. The other Spectres(except Kanan and Hera) did not know about Fulcrum. She had hidden herself in the Force as well, so that Ezra did not sense her and investigate. Ahsoka enjoyed Horatius' company; their conversations were something she would miss, as well as(she realised with a pang of loss) waking up to find him sleeping in a chair he had pulled up next to her bed, and then waking up(sensing some disturbance in her) and checking up on her; how he gave her a reassuring smile and tucked her in every night, or how he would walk into the cabin, sit down, and tell her about what had happened during the day. Most of all, she'd miss the walks they took, throughout the ship,They would just talk and joke, enjoying one another's presence. with Grey sometimes coming along to give Horatius the stats on each of the ship's divisions. She had also befriended OOM9, Grey's right hand droid. He had been dubbed 'Ace', because of his numerous victories prior to Naboo. The B1 had a likeable and friendly personality that had come over him after his reactivation after the battle of Naboo, and he always had stories to tell from the various campaigns he had taken part in, which gave her an interesting perspective on how the Separatist armies functioned. She would miss him too.

Horatius had been training some B1s on how to operate the old Republic walkers he had put in storage aboard his ship. They had been impressed with the AT-TEs, AT-RTs, and AT-APs; even conceding that the Republic had been better equipped than the Separatists. However, the droids remained adamant that their STAPs were superior to the republican BARC speeders, to Gold and Cyclops' chargrin. Some of them were now comparing specs in an effort to prove the other wrong. Droids.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye.", started Ahsoka.

"For now.", finished Horatius. They shared a smile at that. She went over to the prepped and ready starfighter.

As Ahsoka strapped into the V19, she said,"Hera asked me to drop off some supplies for you guys as they were laying low for a bit. You know, after trashing two Star Destroyers and collapsing an imperial prison complex. Tell her I'm on it, and that I'll send her the drop-off point's coordinates within a day or so."

"Gotcha."

"Roger, roger.", piped up Ace, who had snuck up to say goodbye to his newest friend. Sneaky B1.

Ahsoka laughed at the startled look on Horatius' face and his reflexive cocking of his pistols at the B1(who yelped and ran aorund the hangar screaming "I surrender!"). Once they had both calmed down, she bid goodbye to the B1. With that, she left in the V19, docking with one of the Hyperspace Rings outside, and jumping. She was going to go over to one of her safehouses and pick up a new ship for her to drop off the supplies and to use as a base of operations. Horatius felt a little crestfallen at her leaving. He had hoped to spend some more time with Ahsoka. He enjoyed her company and savoured the time they spent together. She was so fun to have around, and so nice to him. What he wouldn't give to be on the receiving end of one of those wonderful smiles! Suddenly, he felt a disturbance in the Force. Something was about to happen; the Spectres needed him. Shaking off his thoughts, He left for the bridge. On his way, suddenly the klaxon for reporting to action stations blared. His hunch had been right. Horatius ran to the bridge and almost collided with Grey at the door. The droid took a step back and gave his commander a situational report.

"Spectres two, five and six are coming in hot with some imperials on their tail. They're approaching in the _Phantom_ from the canyons. The _Ghost_ is too far for them to dock with and escape. Orders?"

"Move in to intercept them. Full alert."

Grey moved aside, relaying orders to the droids scattered aboard the frigate.

"Full alert! All droids, report to your action stations!".

Horatius sat down on the captain;s chair and relayed orders:"Cyclops! Set us near the canyon's end and line her up so that we can catch the _Phantom_ in the hangar through HD-1! CIC! Stay ready to take down some incoming TIEs!"

Cyclops lined up the frigate at the canyon's exit while Fives opened up Hangar Door 1. Gold coordinated the droids operating the turrets lining the _Breakthrough_.

They waited for the ships to approach.

"Spectre two! This is Spectre seven! We're waiting for you at the canyon's end. Make your way there and slow down; we'll cover you and catch you in the hangar!"

"Roger that, Spectre 7! We'll be there in five! We've got seven TIEs on out tail!", replied Hera over the channel.

"Brace yourself!"

As soon as the Phantom skidded into the hangar, two hangar control crews of droids equipped with crash control kits approached the shuttle, ready to deal with any fire that might break out from the dinged-up shutle, or any other complications that may arise. Thankfully, there was minimal damage and the occupants were all in one piece, albeit shaken up. HD-1 was closed quickly.

As soon as the door closed, Gold gave the order to fire at will. The droids took down the oncoming TIEs with ease and pinpoint accuracy(courtesy of some optic and motor-control fine-tuning provided to the droids by Huyang and Cyclops). In moments, the five pursuing TIEs had been shot down. Hera had trashed the two other TIEs in the canyons.

"Cyclops, get us out of here. Time to meet up with the others."

"Roger that, boss."

Cyclops took them out. Horatius, accompanied by Ace and Grey, left for the Hangar. Fives, along with his newly trained medical team of B1s(they had been modified for surgical and medical work) had looked over Sabine, Ezra and Hera. They were all right, except for Sabine, who looked grumpy for some reason. Hera gave him a grateful smile.

"Nice save, Horatius."

"Excellent piloting, Hera."

"Anything happen while I was gone?"

"Fulcrum left. She said she was going to get the supplies we need together and deliver it at a drop-off point whose coordinates she would send us as soon as she got the stuff."

Hera noticed the sad expression Horatius had, and couldn't help but chuckle. He really did care for the togruta.

"What's so funny?", an irrate Sabine who had walked up to them, followed by Ezra, asked.

"Nothing. Just happy to be alive.", covered up Hera."Right. Well, now we wait for Fulcrum to send us the coordinates."

Spectres two, five and six headed off for the rec room to unwind untill they met up with Kanan, Zeb and Chop. Horatius left for the bridge with Ace and Grey. The _Breakthrough_ sailed off into the night.

 **Brigand's Landing, the next day**

"Come on, is that all you've got?", taunted Horatius as he sparred with Kanan, Grey and Zeb. It was a two versus two affair, with Grey(wielding an electrostaff and combat pistols) and Horatius on one side, and Kanan and Zeb on the other. While Kanan and Zeb worked well together, Horatius and Grey worked even better. They were so congenial in their thought process that they could tell what the other was going to do. Grey was a Super Tactical droid made for the role of a tactician, but he had been modified during his stint at Rishi, as well as when he had joined the rebels. His motors and servos had been upgraded for faster and more power-packed movement, and his chassis and plating beefed up to put up with blaster fire and melee attacks. He was excelling in both ranged and melee combat. Combined with Horatius, they were a formidable team. Kanan attacked Horatius while Zeb took on Grey. This went on for a while, untill Horatius, out of the blue, shouted out, "switch!". Grey went for Kanan while he engaged Zeb. The padawan and the lasat were taken by surprise and swiftly overwhelmed, with Grey shooting Kanan's lightsbare out of his hands, while Horatius disarmed Zeb using a Form VII maneouvre Mace Windu had taught him for dealing with Magnaguards, with his sabre.

"How do you work together so well?", asked Kanan as he gasped for breath on the floor. Zeb was panting and went off to the cooler for a drink.

"We understand each other perfectly, and that is why we can coordinate our moves so well."

Horatius gave Grey a high five. The tension between the droids and the organics had abated over the past few days. Horatius had dropped any suspicion he had for Grey and Grey too had done the same. Kanan had come to terms with the droids joining the Spectres and had mixed as well as Horatius could hope for him too. Sabine had gone about painting the droids in different colours Horatius had asked her to use, albeit with some modifications of her own; the droids had good-naturedly submitted. B1s were given the standard grey and white, reminiscent of the Wolfpack's colours; B2s were painted green and white-grey; while droidekas were painted blue(the shade of Kanan's sabre). Grey was painted identically to Horatius' armour, at the tactical droid's insistence. The Commando droids were given a camouflage scheme. Hera had welcomed the droids to the crew, as she was always happy to have more join the rebel cause. Besides that, the droids had won her over by helping her do a complete deep-cleaning and servicing of her beloved freighter. Ezra had befriended the commando droids, who despite their intimidating stature and appearance, had proven to be great company to have around. They had taught the Loth-rat various tricks ranging from picking complex locks to hot-wiring vehicles, and much more. Chopper had become very popular among the more surly B2s; they were incredibly similar in demeanour. He was happy to be surrounded by like-minded personalities. D Squad too were happy to have the clankers with them. Cyclops had seen that Grey was a fantastic right-hand man, and stepped down. He was content to have more time to modifying the frigate and anything else his eyes fell upon. Horatius had taken him aside and told the pit droid, "you might not be my right hand, but you'll still be my best friend, till the very end."

Cyclops had hugged Horatius so hard that two of his ribs had actually cracked(it still hurt). Cyclops was now head of maintenance and engineering. Gold was now the artillery and munitions officer, reigning from CIC. Huyang had stepped down from co-CO of CIC and become the head of inventory and the lead Quartermaster and Refurbisher. Magneta was in charge of comms and scopes. Fives took care of sanitation, nourishment and medical. Deadpan commanded Hangar control and crew, also maintaining the ships in the hangar. Each of them had a contingent of droids under them. Grey was now First Officer and Head of Security, and had proven himself to be more than upto the task. Horatius was the captain and overall leader of D Squad and the CIS droids from Rishi.

Everyone's commlink buzzed; it was Hera on the line.

"Briefing Room 1, five minutes. Fulcrum got the supplies, and we need to pick them up."

"We're on our way, Hera.", Zeb spoke for all of them.

"Good game, fellas. Now let's get down to business."

Ten minutes later, the Spectres(Grey was now Spectre eight) and D Squad assembled in Briefing Room 1 aboard the _Breakthrough_ , which had been repaired and fixed up for them to use as a briefing room. Horatius had never used it before, except to store some small stuff here and there.

Hera was waiting at the central holotable.

"Listen up, you lot. Fulcrum's gathered the supplies we need, and has agreed to drop them off at a remote asteroid, PM-1203, amidst the ruins of the planet Anaxes. The supplies will be dropped at an abandoned Republic base known as Fort Anaxes-"

Before she could continue any further, Sabine interrupted her. "Why can't you tell us who Fulcrum is? We're a part of this too and risk just as much! Heck, you told Horatius before any of us!"

Calmly, though in an exasperated tone, Hera replied,"I haven't told any of you who Fulcrum really is so as to protect both you and Fulcrum in the event of your capture. The Empire has ways of making everybody talk, eventually. Horatius knows because Fulcrum let him. Sabine, trust us. We're your family."

With an annoyed sigh, she sat back down on her seat, pouting.

Hera took up the briefing once more.

"We'll take the _Oddball_ and the _Phantom_ with us, to carry the supplies left for us."

"I'll be going with you. The rest of you, will wait in the adjacent system and stand by, in case we need help.", Horatius added.

"I'm coming too. You'll need help with loading.", piped up Sabine.

Hera saw the ruse being played, but decided to concede, so as to not cause any further strain.

"All right."

Grey spoke up. "I'll send four of my B1s with you to aid in any way possible. Ace shall lead the droids."

"Thanks, Grey. Now we've got the logistics out of the way. We depart in the morning. Ezra, Zeb, run a diagnostic check on the _Phantom_ and fix up any problems you find.", Hera finished.

With a groan, the two replied,"Yes, Hera."

With that, the Spectres broke up, going their separate ways.

"I don't know what's gotten into Sabine lately. She's never really been the questioning type before.", confided a worried Hera.

"Sabine feels left out and untrustworthy, because we didn't tell her about Fulcrum. Growing up as an imperial cadet, she followed orders without question, the consequences of which, she regrets. She doesn't believe in the concept of 'need to know' for precisely that reason. She'll understand why we're keeping the others in the dark about things like Fulcrum soon enough. Give her time.", Kanan advised her wisely.

"Thank you, love. You always seem to know how to lift my spirits."

"That I do."

Making sure nobody was nearby, she stood on her toes and gave him a passionate kiss. Kanan lifted her off her feet and spun her around for a bit. She couldn't help but giggle a little.

"Case in point.", a smiling Hera muttered. After a while, she ordered, "Stop! You never know when Horatius is prowling about or Chopper is filming."

"Say what now?", asked a surprised Kanan.

She told him about Chopper's stash of recordings with which he planned to blackmail them some day.

"Oh, that droid is going down.", snarled Kanan.

"I second that. Just not today, all right? How's training with Horatius going?"

Kanan perked up at the mention of his master.

"It's going great! He's teaching me to be proficient in each of the seven forms. We've covered Forms I and II, and as I'm already good with Form III, we'll be moving onto Form IV soon! He's also teaching me to expand my abilities with the Force; I can do much more now. He also gives me useful advice now and then on training Ezra, but is firm that I train him on my own, as it is crucial for both Ezra's and my own development."

Hera smiled at how happy Kanan was to resume his training and become stronger. He had felt bad when the Grand Inquisitor had defeated him with ease on Stygeon Prime, and wanted to be able to fend for himself; he was improving with each passing day, and his old confidence was returning.

"I see. You're having a good time, that much is clear. How's Ezra's training going?"

"It's going well. He's strong with the Force and is eager to learn. He's diligent and doesn't give up. He's making excellent progress."

"You seem to be on your way to becoming a Jedi in full, Kanan. Good on you. By the way, have you noticed anything different about Horatius?"

"He's less uptight and more open and communicative, and seems to be at ease. Yesterday, I saw him skip down a hallway, humming, for no reason whatsoever. Something has changed in him too, I can sense it in the Force. Strange.", Kanan reported.

"I think he doesn't feel as lonely anymore, now that he has has so many droids from a background and an era to which he belongs to as well. He's found a family with us and the droids. People who care for him. Not just droids, but living, breathing people." With a conspirational smile, she added,"But that doesn't seem to be all. I think he met someone."

"Really? Who could win someone like him over?"  
"Someone who can only be won over by someone as enigmatic as Horatius."

Kanan paused.

"You don't mean to say.."

"Yes, I do. Horatius Payne seems to have fallen for Fulcrum."

"Wow. That's...an interesting pairing."

"Mm. I think she likes him too."

"Wait till the galaxy gets a load of their kids.", Kanan joked. They shared a chuckle.

"It should be interesting, to put it mildly, to watch them come together."

"Oh, it will be. And I'm pretty sure they will; oh, the way they look at each other!"

"I'll take your word for it."

"You should've seen the way he looked at her. Oh, priceless it was! And the way they talk, it's like they've known each other forever!"

"I see. Well, it's time for bed. 'Night, Hera."

Hera folded her arms, and giving him an inviting smile, whispered,"Come on, then."

Kanan turned around, and grinned. He followed her to her cabin, whooping "Yowzah!" in his head as they left. Little did they know that two others had listened to their conversation: a mandalorian looking for answers on who exactly Fulcrum was, and a sneaky C1 droid hiding in the vents, Ezra-style, recording the twi'lek and the padawan. Sabine left for her cabin, pondering the new information she had stumbled upon; while Chopper rolled off towards the _Phantom_ , docked at the rear of the freighter, to help Ezra and Zeb with repairs and the systems check.

"Running diagnostics now. This'll take a while.", groaned Zeb. "How's the steering coming along?"

"The steering is off. Hera really gets this ship. It's almost done.", reported Ezra.

"Well, Life Support and steering are functioning optimally again. Chopper, purge the filters."

Chopper, plugged into the droid station, obeyed. However, he dumped the contents onto an unsuspecting Ezra.

"That's it. You're in for some scrapping now!", snarled Ezra and jumped atop the C1, who struggled to get the boy off.

"Wait a second. The diagnostics check isn't complete yet.", managed Zeb, still laughing at Chopper's antics.

"Do something yourself!", called Ezra as he rode away on the struggling Chopper.

"Why you...", growled Zeb, and then he too joined in the chase. A short while later, the screen beeped and chirped:"DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETED."

The screen flared red, with the readout saying:"FUEL LINE SEVERAGE DETECTED. LOCATION: HULL. WARNING: FUEL LEAKAGE WILL OCCUR UNLESS REPAIRS ARE CONDUCTED!"

All it's chirping was for naught. There was no one nearby.

"Zeb, Ezra, are the repairs done or what?", inquired Hera as she and Sabine made their way to the _Phantom_. Before either could reply, Chopper burst in, ran both their feet over with his struts and wheeled off, cackling, "Road rage, organic fools!"

Ezra and Zeb went off after the droid, thirsty for revenge.

Hera and Sabine simply shook their head and boarded their shuttle. They disengaged from the _Ghost_ and lined up next to the waiting _Oddball_.

"You ready to roll, Spectre seven?", Sabine hailed the Republic shuttle.

"I was ready yesterday, kiddo.", came the reply.

"I'm no kid!"

"Eh, you kind of are to me. Heck, the whole lot of you are. The only ones even near my age are maybe Spectres three and four. I was fourteen, although I looked like I was fully grown, when the Republic showed up to pick me and my brothers up. So yeah, kid."

Sabine had no response to that.

"All right, cut the chatter, let's get going.", Hera interrupted.

"Affirmative, Spectre two. Jumping in three, two, one...jump!"

The two ships jumped. A while later, the frigate and the freighter jumped too, bound for the adjacent star system.

 **Hyperspace**

Horatius switched the comm off. Sabine's sulking and questions were getting annoying. Couldn't the girl just trust them? One of the droids went 'awwww' at the comm being switched off(it was the only source of entertainment on the otherwise boring ride to Ananxes), but Horatius gave the droid a look that made him recoil and cower behind one of his comrades.

"Boss, what's the gig?", Ace inquired. He hadn't been there for the briefing.

"Fulcrum left some supplies for us to pick up on this remote asteroid among the ruins of the planet Anaxes. We're going to help Sabine and Hera with the job."

"Do you think we'll get to see Fulcrum, boss?", Ace asked hopefully.

"I don't know, Ace."

The B1 seemed a little crestfallen at this. Then, he perked up.

"Boss, do you like her?"

"Quiet, you.", Horatius replied."I need to go over the manifest of stuff we need to pick up. I heard you had a thing for a mouse droid once. How'd that go?"

The B1 shut up after that. Horatius breathed a sigh of relief. He had dodged a bullet there. If he had to be honest to himself, then yes, he was beginning to like the togruta more and more with every encounter. Without her around, Horatius felt...incomplete. Maybe he liked her in more than just a friendly way, maybe he didn't. Either way, what were the odds she would ever love a clone? Horatius reflected sadly. The ships jumped out of hyperspace. Horatius felt something on the opposite side of the ruined planet. He could feel the vibes of...Jedi?! He just had to take a closer look. Jedi joining their ranks would be fantastic for the cause. Quickly, he buzzed Hera.

"What is it, Spectre seven?", came the somewhat curt reply. Sabine must have really ticked her off.

"On the other side of Anaxes, I feel something in the Force, that feels like Jedi. I need to take a look. Is it all right if you guys load the supplies up by yourself?"

"Jedi, huh? More of them would be great news for us and hell for the Empire. I've looked over the manifest, and yeah, there aren't that many things. We'll manage with one shuttle. Good luck!"

"May the Force be with you, Spectre two."

The commlink went silent.

Horatius headed off for the far side of Ananxes, while Hera and Sabine pressed on towards Fort Anaxes. Little did they know just how intense things were about to get.

 **The far side of Anaxes**

The _Oddball_ landed with a small thud on the asteroid Horatius had felt the Jedi presence. He put on his helmet and as he walked out the ramp, told the four B1s to stay with the ship and be ready for take off at a moment's notice. Stepping out, he took a small container off his belt and popped two pills into his mouth. Anti-rads. This side of Anaxes was in worse condition than the side with Fort Anaxes. The asteroid he was on was pretty close to the planet's exposed and unstable core. After the planet had shattered, its radioactive core had endured. The radiations being emitted from the core at this range could be lethal. He made his way over to the cave where he could feel the signatures, albeit they were extremely weak. Outside the cave, he found a Republic escort frigate. It had crashed there. He could sense that there were no life forms aboard. Some plating had been removed from the downed frigate. Nearby, four _Aethersprite_ -class interceptors and two Eta 2- _Actis_ class interceptors were parked. The fighters' astromechs were still sitting there in their interceptors, dead to the world. They must have run out of power some time in the past.

"Ace, grab some powerbanks and come out here with the rest of the boys. By the cave, you'll find six Jedi starfighters, and inside them will be astromechs. Plug em' and get 'em running again. Ask them what exactly went down here. I'm going to go check the cave out."

"Roger, roger. Will be done." After a moment of processing, he added,"Careful, boss. It's _dark_."

"Very funny, Ace."

While the droids ran out to the astromechs, Horatius ventured into the cave, focussing on the signatures of the Jedi he had sensed.

"I can't believe you interrupted me in the middle of my transmission with Fulcrum!", stormed Hera.

"You told Horatius who Fulcrum was, and they got to meet!", Sabine shot back.

"For the last time, Sabine. Fulcrum was intrigued by Horatius; she asked to meet him! I didn't have jack to do with him knowing Fulcrum's identity or their meeting! The reason I don't tell the whole crew who Fulcrum is to protect you lot! I didn't even tell Kanan; he stumbled upon one of our meetings when he came back from a supply run early."

Sabine just pouted unhapilly and walked off to where the crates were, along with some fuel. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw some rhydonium cannisters nearby.

"Score! Rhydonium!"

"Fulcrum might've left it here; or it was just left here when the base was abandoned. Either way, the stuff's pretty useful; as fuel, or as explosives.", pondered Hera.

Sabine couldn't help but grin at the mention of explosives.

"What did Horatius go off to check out, anyways?"

"He said he sensed a Jedi presence on the far side of Anaxes. He went there, hoping to bring in some Jedi."

"Do you think he'll be all right?"

A touch of concern.

Hera smiled. "Of course he will be. If there's anyone who knows how to make or get out of a mess, it's Horatius Payne."

Horatius ignited his lightsabre to provide him with light as he made his way deeper into the cave. He could feel the signatures growing closer. The signatures, however, were accompanied by a larger, stronger presence. Finally, he reached the innermost cavern. Another path stretched beyond, leading back outside. Quietly, he made his way over to where the signatures were coming from. As he approached the signatures, his face fell. Lying there were six shriveled corpses: a mon calamari, two humans, a nautolan, an ithorian and a kaminoan. All of them were garbed in Jedi robes. In a corner of the cave, six lightsabres were kept, stained with the blood of their users. They were kept on a republic flag. What could do this?, the clone despaired. He looked at the bodies closely to find that they were covered in bite and scratch marks. A creature did this, not a Force-wielder. As he looked around the cave, he saw that the lower walls had been covered with plating from the downed frigate. He realized what happened in an instant. The unfortunate Jedi's frigate had crashed here. They had no hyperspace rings for their interceptors to travel via, so they were stranded. They had found it to be a viable hiding place from the Jedi purge. They had removed some of the plating from the frigate to plate the cave and provide protection from Anaxes' radioactive core. Clever. Republic cruisers and frigates had anti-radiation plating. They could have built a settlement here. However, they had not foreseen the unknown creature, who had found his or her territory defiled, and slaughtered the Jedi in retaliation. It seemed that this creature had kept the fallen Jedi's lightsabres as trophies of its victory. Suddenly, His commlink buzzed to life, and a robotic voice could be frantically be heard shouting amidst the static(courtesy of the deep cave),"Boss! Get the...of there.

There's...lurkin...in there...preyed upon...RUN!"

The voice was engulfed by static once more, and Horatius could here no more.

As he looked around, he finally looked directly upwards, to find a gigantic pair of yellow eyes staring back at him. It snarled ferally, making the cave shake. The creature pounced.

"Spectre seven! This is Spectre two, calling for immediate extraction right now! The _Phantom_ 's run out of fuel due to a leak and we're under attack! The whole place is crawling with-"

"FYRNOCKS!", a faint voice was heard over the commlink. "I know about...now dealing with the alpha...can't contact Ace..interference..on your own for now..sorry..might not make it."

Static.

"KARABAST! Sabine! We're on our own for now! Horatius seem to be pinned down by the pack's alpha. He can't hail Ace either."

Sabine yelled among pistol fire,"Call the _Ghost_! Tell those nerfherding slackers to hightail it here at once! We won't last long at this rate! I can use the Rhydonium canisters as a last resort, but that'll just buy us some time!"

"Roger that."

Hera started to dial the _Ghost_ , hoping someone would pick up.

Horatius screamed. He'd just been thrown against some rocks by the alpha fyrnock's spiked tail. Three of his ribs broke at once, and he coughed blood. The alpha was _huge_. Prolonged exposure to the core must've caused it to mutate to giant size, grow spikes and fangs that would give the toughest of Rancors nightmares. Before it could strike him with its lethal tail, Horatius jumped out of the way. He needed a plan to deal with this menace. Judging by the scars on the alpha's body, he figured that mutation had toughened its hide to incredible thickness, like the Zilo Beast the Republic had come across during the Clone Wars. Brute force was not going to get the job done here. While thinking of the Clone Wars, his gaze fell upon the lightsabres stashed in the corner. Brainstorm. Horatius grinned. He just had an idea, and boy, was it a beauty or what? From the little he knew about Fyrnocks from the Republic Flora and Fauna Databank, he knew that they hated light due to their sensitive, adapted-for-darkness eyes. That could help him with his situation. Horatius had made up his mind. He was going to kill the alpha. He had killed off six Jedi for its own satisfaction. He hadn't even eaten them, it had been a game for him. Horatius was no fan of pointless killing. He summoned the lightsabres with the Force, and as he ran, began to modify three of them(he had eight in total; two of the Jedi had preferred double-sabred fighting). He was going to pull a Petro. Deliberately, he screwed up the lightsabre's inner workings, as he dodged the rampaging alpha. In a few minutes, his three specially tampered lightsabres were ready to do what Horatius had modified them to do. Horatius smiled. Petro would love this if he was here; to watch the trick he had invented be used in a situation like this. Too bad he had no idea where the youngling now was. Pinning all the sabres to his belt and taking cover behind a rock, Horatius booted up his commlink and shouted into it,"Ace, if you can hear me, than follow closely what I'm about to tell you! Otherwise, I'll die."

Horatius spoke his plan into the commlink, praying with every inch of his soul that the message got to the B1. "And wait for my signal!", he finished into the commlink. Now, he waited, stealthily moving from rock to rock. The alpha seemed to have reduced hearing and sense of smell, it seemed. Equivalent exchange:he became stronger and more lethal, but gave up a large chunk of his olfactory and auditory senses. After the stipulated amount of time for Ace to get ready had passed, Horatius braced himself for what he was going to do next. His ribs still hurt badly, and he couldn't use Mitigation on himself. As he steeled himself, he couldn't help but wish to say goodbye to the rebels, if this was his last stand. He would've liked to part with Ahsoka with some words too. Then again, want doesn't get. Ready, he stepped out to meet the alpha, yelling at the top of his voice(oh, his ribs!),"here kitty, kitty!"

The alpha turned and snarled, facing his foe with beady eyes fixed. It was beginning to get worried. This particular quarry was proving to be more elusive and steadfast than the others. Its confidence was beginning to falter little by little. It pounced once more, landing at the mouth of the tunnel from where the white-clad prey had wandered in. He had dodged yet again!

"NOW!", Horatius shouted into his commlink.

 _Oh, please, Ace, please show up, or I'm going to die in this miserable cave, forgotten by time, without a grave, and my lightsabre being added to an overgrown Fyrnock's pile of shiny things._

Moments later, Horatius' prayers were answered. Six Jedi interceptors burst into the cavern, guns blazing at the alpha. The astromechs, their powered restored, had come to save the day. Ace had heard Horatius! He had told the astros to pilot their fighters into the cavern and provide cover fire for Horatius while he avenged their dead masters. Horatius whooped and did a little jig as the alpha got peppered by laser fire. The alpha tried to swat them, but the droids simply moved out of physical attacks' range. Working quickly, Horatius got his sabotaged lightsabres ready and threw them as the Fyrnock turned to attack the only target within its reach: the waiting clone. Swiftly, Horatius used the Force to activate the hot-wired sabres, and they all blew up in brilliant flashes of green or blue light, blinding the alpha! As the alpha howled in agony, Horatius, with the aid of the Force, chucked three thermal detonators into the alpha's open mouth. It gagged at the grenades. It didn't gag for much longer, as the detonators went off seconds later, leaving empty space where the alpha's head had once been. It fell to the cavern floor, deader than a doorknob. As Horatius fell to the floor, relieved, the six interceptors landed. Using the Force once again, he moved the corpses of the Jedi who had fallen prey to the mutated Fyrnock into the starfighters' cockpits. Slowly, he trudged over to one of the starfighters, painted bright orange, like a certain rebel he knew, and told the droid to take the others and the corpses out of the cave, and to wait there. The astromech beeped an affirmative, and went off with its comrades in tow. Slowly, Horatius limped all the way back to the frigate crash site outside the cave(one of the alpha's tail spikes had grazed his legs pretty bad, ouch). He was greeted by a group hug from the B1s, who had thought he had perished. They were happy that he was alive; his death would've meant death-by-trash-compactor for them, with Grey at the controls. Ignoring Ace's yodelling of "who's your best buddy?", he went over to the waiting astromechs. They thanked him for vanquishing their masters' killer profusely. Introductions were made. Horatius offered them a place on his crew, but the droids politely refused, stating that they were done with war and the Empire or Republic, whichever the hell it was, thank you very much. They had decided to get the frigate working again, a part of it anyway; they were going to make one common hyperspace platform for the six fighters with the wrecked frigate's intact engines and hyperdrive, and use it to travel to their masters' homeworlds, where they would be given a proper funeral by the people there. The orange fighter's droid assured him that the tale of droids' savior and his actions to help recover the Jedi's bodies and make the killer pay would be told to the fallen Jedi's people, and his efforts would not go unnoticed. Horatius also asked the droid to send him the specs on the makeshift hyperspace ring they would build; Cyclops would be fascinated. The astromechs agreed, and told him that if they ever needed it, they would come to the rebels' aid. With that, the two groups parted, as both allies and friends.

As Horatius made his way back to the _Oddball_ , where the B1s were waiting, Horatius remebered Hera's plight! Karabast! He hurried on board and told Ace and another B1 to get them to Fort Anaxes, double time. As they were making a turn in space, they almost collided with another passing ship.

"What the-? Idiot organics!", Ace's co-pilot B1 sputtered.

"Hello to you too.", came an irritated twi'lek's voice over the comms.

"Hera! You're okay! We were on our way to help.", Horatius spoke from the hold's comm station.

"I'm fine too, thanks for asking.", Sabine piped up over the line.

"Yeah, yeah. Good for you, kiddo. I'm sure Ezra's glad.", Horatius retorted.

"What are you trying yo-", an indignant and slightly flustered Sabine tried to speak up, while Hera stifled laughs.

"Oh, you know what, kiddo. I know you know what.", teased a slightly woozy Horatius(painkillers did that to him).

"All right, all right. Cut it out. We can talk once we're far from here. Horatius, the _Breakthrough_ 's waiting for you outside the asteroid field. We're docked with the _Ghost_ ; Kanan came through."

As the line was about to be cut, Horatius couldn't help but sing, "Be sure to thank him properly, Hera."

Hera caught on to what Horatius meant; it was Sabine's turn to stifle her laughter. Hera flushed and began threateningly, "Why you-"

Horatius cut the line, giggling madly. Yep, the pain meds in the medical locker of the ship had expired all right. The _Oddball_ docked with the _Breakthrough_ a short while later. Shortly, the frigate and the freighter made the jump to lightspeed, bound for Lothal.

 **Brigand's Landing, four hours later**

"Look at that, we're all alive!", whooped Horatius, as they sat around the holotable in Briefing Room 1, dubbed 'Spectre Control' by Ezra.

Hera and Sabine were giving him venomous looks, but had decided to not take drastic action when Ace had told them about Horatius and the bad meds.

"He'll be like that for a while. The other side effect is that he'll speak nothing but the truth for a while."

The crew had grinned at that.

As Horatius finished telling his side of the story on the excursion to Anaxes after Hera and Sabine, the crew nodded to one another. Kanan stepped forward and began, "Okay, master. Truth time."

"Truth is the most painful thing of all.", Horatius replied lazily. Those present gave one another uneasy looks.

Sabine:"Who are you?"

Horatius:"I was once an ARC Commander called Havoc. Now, I go by the name of Horatius Payne. I'm a clone."

Zeb:"Why did you join our crew?"

Horatius:"I was lonely, so were my droid partners. We wanted to belong somewhere. During the Clone Wars, we belonged; I among my brothers, and D Squad with their respective Jedi or commanding officers. We had a purpose. With the Spectres, we have everything we wanted to feel complete, to be a part of something. To have friends, a family."

Everyone was quiet at this.

Kanan:"How are you so accomplished in the ways of the Force?"

Horatius:"I told you already. I was born a Force-sensitive. The Jedi High Council found and trained me. After the war, I travelled to a barren ice planet, Hoth, and stayed there for several years, training and perfecting my connection with the Force and prowess in combat. I even went back to the cave of the Gathering for guidance like I was told to after ten years, only to find the cave in ruins. The voice that had commanded me was gone."

Ezra:"Did you work for the Empire, ever?"

Horatius:"No. When I woke up, I went there to see what had become of my brothers. They'd been decommissioned and forgotten, their purpose served. The way they just...discarded my brothers like they meant nothing, despite everything the clones did for the Republic...it pissed me off. I left, vowing that I would never work for something as soulless as the Empire!"

Hera:"You said I reminded you of someone. Who was it?"

Horatius:"She too was a twi'lek, and looked like you and acted a lot like you too. Her name was Resa. I loved her so much...She was beaten and left for dead by some drunks..she died a short while later..I buried her..I avenged her..."

Spectre Control had gone very quiet. Hera was about to ask another question, when Grey and D Squad walked in. They had seen the whole thing on camera.

"So this is how you get to know people, huh? He trusts you, and then you decide to pull this kind of crap? Decided to take a look at his past, did you now?", Fives asked them, his tone deathly quiet. Before they could explain themselves, Grey ordered three droidekas to escort them off the ship; and magneta used her magnetic attachment to disarm all of them; from Kanan's lightsabre to Sabine's bombs. They left, feeling ashamed at their lack of trust in their comrade and friend, sorrounded by droidekas. As they got off the cargo loading ramp, their weapons were tossed out, the ramp closed, and the _Breakthrough_ took off. As the ship left, Hera tried to reason with them and apologise over the commlink. Her messages were heard by no one.

Once the frigate was gone, the Spectres were left standing in the field.

"We messed up big time.", confessed Ezra.

"It wasn't right to interrogate him like that.", added an abashed Zeb.

"And they're gone now.", finished a sad Sabine.

The three of them left for their cabins.

"How are we going to patch things up with Horatius?", wondered Kanan.

"I haven't the faintest idea.", Hera gloomily responded.

The two of them walked back to the _Ghost_ together, and shut the ramp behind them. Brigand's Landing had never felt emptier before.

 **I'll be back soon! Count on it.**


End file.
